Snowed In
by EwokPoet
Summary: The young Ewoks Wicket, Kneesaa, Teebo, Latara and Paploo are two snows older than at the start of the cartoon series. It's time for them to come out of age, experience their first major disappointments and learn how to think of others. The story bridges the cartoon series to the 2013 Shadows of Endor comic.
1. Chapter 1

Deep below the ancient conifer trees, an Ewok hunting party lead by Tippet and Wunka was tracing a large animal, most likely a gurreck. Known for their strict beliefs, Ewoks would only hunt when there was no other food, and in the times when the supplies gathered throughout the summer would not be enough to warm them up. With the first signs of a particularly harsh winter, a thin layer of ice had formed on the Yarlubb River and the first snow had fallen in the Happy Grove, hunting was inevitable.

"Do you think we'll find it?" The pitch-black Wunka was nervously scratching his friend's shoulders.

"Calm down!" Tippet was still optimistic. "Arandee, we need to focus on the task, otherwise we will have to settle for small game and birds...and you know what that means, right?"

"Of course. Hunting every other day, smoking the meat..."

"...and taking along a group of young ones, to teach them how to hunt and preserve what they caught. I hate that! They end up being more trouble than it's worth and no help at all!"

"Don't be so hard on them!" A shortish Ewok named Romba, who had kept quiet until then, joined the conversation. "Some ten, twenty snows ago we were like them – either overconfident and guaranteed to cause trouble, or scared of our own shadows! There was no middle ground!"

"Chak, I remember the day Stemzee fell from a high branch, face straight into a pile of maramu droppings!" One of the hunters recalled. "That smelled worse than, I don't know, a female Dulok in heat?"

"Wait, did you just admit you're familiar with that smell? Poor you!"

The whole group laughed.

On the other side of the forest, high above in their treetop home of Bright Tree Village, the young Ewoks, still free from most major responsibilities, had completely different things on their minds.

It was the day Wicket W. Warrick had been dreaming of a lot, the one he had been impatiently counting the days to. Though his height and behaviour would have made one think otherwise, this was the day he came out of age. No more questioning his decisions. No more telling him that he was too young. No more endless arguments with his parents over mundane chores and deliberately staging his own adventures solely for the sake of another trophy, another ticket for independence.

Wicket was proud of the things he'd done in between his birthdays - he saved his friends' lives multiple times, he had no problem finding a date for the Shadownight festival and, upon failing his first big warrior test, he overcame a personal crisis which almost made him give up on his dreams. He'd even been to space with three of his closest friends and frequent partners in crime. It was an incredible year. And now he was determined to start an even greater one, surrounded by his loving family and friends whom he had invited to his party. He planned his big night with attention to every single detail. He asked his parents to empty the largest chamber of their hut, so he could invite everybody old enough to wear a hood and young enough not to have woklings waiting at home. He was exceptionally nice to his mother, Shodu, for a couple of moons, so she would have made enough food for everybody. His older brothers, Weechee and Widdle, agreed to play drums and he was hoping that he could, perhaps, get two of his female friends, Kneesaa and Latara to join in – one to sing and the other to play the flute.

He was getting more and more excited as the night was falling down on the snow-covered huts.

"Mom!" he called Shodu, who was busy arranging food on the large table, "How do I look? Did I grow since my last birthday?"

While Shodu was thinking of what to say, Weechee, who seemed busy pulling a new layer of leather over his big drum, interrupted them.

"Don't worry, little brother, you're about two fleebogs taller than you were a year ago!"

"Chak, but that would be two baby fleebogs!" Widdle's remark was soon followed by both older Warrick children snickering and making faces at Wicket.

"Sounds about the size of your brains, lurdos!" Wicket snarled and went after them. But his father Deej, back from running some last-moment errands, grabbed him by the hood and then gave him a gentle pat on the back.

"You're bigger on the inside, my boy. Don't let these two get you down! As for you, Weechee and Willy, don't spoil Wicket's big day! This is a warning. I will be watching you"

"Of course, we would not even think of it." Weechee stepped back and winked to his brother.

"It's Widdle, dad! I'm a scout now and I am a whole new Ewok, I got this mean red hood and I lost some weight! Don't call me Willy anymore!"

"That's right, we're proud of you. But we're proud of Wicket, too. He has come so far since the days he played alone near the fire pit. Poor baby, no other woklings were born that season and it took us some time to find him a playmate!"

"Chak, until Chirpa got over the initial shock after losing his wife and started leaving Kneesaa with us, it was pretty hard to get Wicket to sit still." Shodu sat down next to her sons and husband, in the mood for a story. "And then there was that awful gang of Duloks who took away all of the children and nearly killed them..."

"I know, mom, I know…you told us this story so many times – we were saved and we became friends with the slightly older boy who contributed to our rescue, and before he first came around to play with me, you had no idea he could actually speak. And his sister is such a precious, sweet child and you don't like how I treat her sometimes!"

Shodu smiled broadly.

"All of that is true…and they're all right behind you!"

Two adolescent Ewoks and one slightly younger girl were standing behind Wicket. They quietly got in while he was complaining about his parents telling the same stories over and over.

"Kneesaa! Teebo! Malani! You're already here!"

"Goopa!" squeaked the little girl in an oversized blue hood with a star decoration. "Happy birthday!" A much taller male Ewok with a pink lantern bird tail feather on a baggy leather hat stood behind her, holding something wrapped in a piece of cloth. She took it from him and handed it over to Wicket.

"Umm, Malani and Teebo, thank you!"

Wicket went on to unwrap the present. At a first glance, it looked like a toy - it was brightly coloured, but he could not figure out what it was.

"What is this?" he asked Teebo.

"We made it together for you. I carved it and Malani painted it. Malani, would you please tell Wicket about it?"

"Sure! I-I-I-I don't know what this is, but I d-dreamed of it. It was too beautiful not to become real. You see, it has a pair of wheels and a tail! I told my brother what to make and then I painted it to make it even more beautiful. I liked it so much that I decided to give it to you…because I love you!"

The older Warrick offspring rolled their eyes, as little Malani was standing there, lovestruck, describing her bizarre birthday gift, with so much enthusiasm. She then proceeded to run around the chamber, giggling. It was only then that Kneesaa, who had been waiting patiently for the child to be done, came closer to Wicket, gave him a hug, kissed him on the cheek and presented him with a spear.

"This is from the three of us - my father, my sister and me. We thought you could use a new spear, now that you're on your way to become a warrior! Asha said goopa. She could not make it, since she went to the other side of the forest help Chukha-Trok with animal feeders for the snow season."

Wicket took the spear and played with it as if he were in the middle of a battle, yelling and jumping. Kneesaa waited for a bit, as if her friend had forgotten something. Eventually, she shook her head, sighed and went to the table to pour herself a drink.

"Shodu, what are we drinking tonight?"

"Warm milk for those who have just come in from outside and, for when you've warmed up some dangleberry juice, some sunberry juice...the usual. Just go and help yourself, dear."

The next to arrive was Kneesaa's cousin, Paploo. He shook Wicket's small hand to the point where it hurt him.

"Happy birthday, Wicket, you're an old man now! Ha-ha! This is from mom and me."

Wicked unwrapped yet another piece of cloth and looked inside. This gift looked like a belt, but there was a wooden buckle in the middle, its shape resembling the one of a munyip.

"Paploo, you said it was from your mom and you…are you sure of that?"

"Okay, it's from mom. I forget all possible important occasions, so I did not know it was your birthday before she reminded me. I thought this was a first snow party. As for mom, she said that this munyip-shaped buckle would look good on one of her, I am repeating her words you know, favourite little angels."

Everybody laughed. Wicket put the belt on, solely to realise it's too wide. But Bozzie, who had lost both her sister-in-law and her husband and had only her son to keep her company, meant well, ever since he saved her soul tree from a forest fire some snows ago.

"Tell your mom I love it and that I hope I'll be able to actually wear it someday, Paploo. She probably thought I was as big as you, for some reason. Either way, I've been getting the strangest gifts this year; it's got to mean something. Teebo?"

"Chak?"

"I have to thank you for not having written me a birthday poem or something like that. Malani managed to outweird you this time! It must be in the family!"

Teebo frowned. His friends mostly saw his poetry as something to poke fun at and they never wanted to hear anything about it. The frown quickly changed into a grin - he did not want to criticise Wicket on his birthday.

"I wouldn't say it's in the family. Our parents are pretty regular folk. Maybe the stars were aligned in a particularly strange way when each of us born! Oh…k'vark! The stars!"

"What's wrong, Teebo?" Kneesaa asked.

"I just remembered something. It's my turn to check the stars tonight and draw a chart! Master Logray is visiting the Tulgah traders with Chief Chirpa and he expects me to do this! I have to run out for a bit! I cannot believe it. Tonight, out of all nights in the year…on my best friend's big birthday!"

"Come back after you're done, this party will go on for long enough. I'll tell Shodu to save a piece of cake for you, as I don't think Wicket will remember."

"Thanks, and put this somewhere...I didn't even manage to take a sip of it or snack on something."

Teebo left the glass in Kneesaa's hand and ran out into the night. She shrugged and left the glass on the table, solely to realise her friend didn't poor himself anything.

It's hard being the reliable one, she thought to herself. Her friends had always been so complicated, compared to her. Paploo loved tall tales and would never think before jumping into danger. Wicket, whom she was fonder of than she would ever admit, has grown more confident, but he was still making more trouble than avoiding it. Teebo was withdrawn, somewhat awkward, but very polite and caring. Snappy Latara had not written a song in ages, there was a period when she was preoccupied with material possessions, but she recently discovered a new passion - hood making.

Unlike all of them, Kneesaa was just...normal, though many adult Ewoks were often telling her that she was wise beyond her years. She was not sure if it was so because of her numerous responsibilities, or because she never had a proper family. Sometimes, she wished she could just snap at her friends for being so complicated. Tell Paploo to think before he acts and make him realise how scared he actually is, deep within. Tame the burning desire for adventure in Wicket's heart, so there could be place for something else. Get Teebo and Latara together at last and see them hold hands. There was a lot more, to the point Kneesaa would often feel like if it was her duty to fix the whole of Endor.


	2. Chapter 2

The guests were arriving, bringing ordinary gifts, to Wicket's relief. He was happy that his party has been going on well so far. Finally, his brothers finished fixing the drums and started drumming. He asked Weechee's girlfriend, Chirita, for a dance. She was suspicious.

"I hope you aren't crushing on me anymore, kid. I could beat ya up, y'know?"

"Not by any means, it's just that somebody has to dance with you while my brother is playing music for us. I tried to drum once and it didn't go that well, I broke the drum!"

"You're a fierce little one, aren't you? Perhaps you will be an actual warrior someday, after all!" Chirita laughed.

Latara was making her way through the dancing crowd. She had to carry the braid-like extension of her hood in her hands, as Widdle stepped on it when she got in.

"Goopa, Wicket! Happy birthday!"

"Latara! You're always the last to arrive, but I'm glad you made it!"

"Chak, you know what my father is like…I couldn't get out before I scrubbed the floor, tucked Nippet and Wiley in their hammocks and, well, fixed myself a bath, brushed my fur and made sure I looked good enough to party! Here's your gift! It's a new bag!"

"Nice! But it has two straps?!"

"That's one of my ideas! That way you can carry it on your back, underneath your hood and nobody will know it's there. Clever, huh?"

Wicket was about to thank Latara, but she already joined the dancing guests, having first gulped down a large glass of sunberry juice. At first, she danced by herself, but after a couple of songs, she was next to Tak, wiggling. Of Weechee's age and known for his handsome fur, Tak was surprised. He could swear she just stroked him down his back. How strange. He looked around and noticed her dance to Flitchee, rubbing her back against him. And then another. And another. Then she went for another glass of juice.

Tak was confused and he went to find Kneesaa. She was standing by the table, looking at Wicket doing a handstand as his brothers were drumming.

"Goopa, Kneesaa! Nice party, don't you think?"

"Uh, chak. And it's nice you came, despite my sister not being here. I'd go crazy if I was engaged and had to be apart fr..."

"Arandee...your friend, the sassy girl, the musician, she seems to be on some kind of a courting spree, if there is such a thing!"

Tak pointed at Latara dancing with another random visitor. Kneesaa was surprised. She couldn't think of a way to get Latara out of the crowd in order to see what was going on. Then she noticed a blue hood peeking from under the table and she instantly had an idea.

"Malani? Is that you? Are you hiding?"

Malani gasped. She seemed to be enchanted by Wicket's antics, which she was enjoying from what she thought was the best seat in the house.

"No! I don't want to go home, don't tell my brother that I'm hiding here!"

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you can stay as long as you like. Go bring me Latara! Find a reason; tell her that you want to show her something!"

Malani jumped out of her hiding place and went to Latara, nearly bumping into Wicket.

"Latara, I was wondering if you could come and help me with..."

"Latara, will you play something for my birthday? Please? Kneesaa can sing, and Malani, you can join me for a dance. Is that alright?"

"CHAK!"

Malani squeaked and clapped her hands, forgetting why she needed Latara in the first place. She pulled both girls by hand, to the corner of the hut where Weechee and Willy were drumming.

"Attention, please. Two of my lovely friends, Kneesaa and Latara, agreed to honour my request and make this evening even more memorable! Shall we do 'Knaa Naa'?"

Kneesaa wasn't so sure about this, but she cleared her throat, gave Weechee a sign to start drumming and proceeded to sing the song of soul trees. Next to her, Latara acted as if she had never played the flute before. There was no music coming out of it, just squeaks and an odd tone or two. Kneesaa sung louder and louder, to get the guests' attention off music, and she clapped her hands as little Malani was dancing with the birthday boy, with a huge grin on her face.

When the song was over, the girls went back to the table.

"What, by the Great Tree, were you doing, Latara?"

"Whatever I was doing, I let it all out and now I'm ready. Where is Teebo? I've been thinking that tonight might be a good opportunity to..."

"...to what? You just courted every single unmarried male in the village, apart from Paploo and the Warricks, and then you couldn't play your flute to save your life...What was this show about?"

"You see, I thought he was here, to see what I was doing. So much for my plan! Err...I wanted to make him take action on the...point we reached some time ago. He never said anything about it."

"You mean when you kissed him at King Elbo's palace?" said Kneesaa, still slightly frustrated with the situation.

"Chak. You know it was not just in the heat of the moment. After that kiss, I've wanted to apologise for treating him the way I did, but then I remembered how he ignored me for a whole year before that!"

"He never ignored you. He was never the same with you as he was with everybody else. You're very lucky. I don't know how it feels to have my affection for somebody returned the way I would want to, but you do and you should act on it!"

Paploo was standing next to Kneesaa and Latara, laughing.

"Ha! I knew it all along! The local lurdo and the wannabe have a thing going on! But a kiss? I didn't see that coming, honestly!"

Latara angrily stomped her foot.

"Whom did you call a wannabe, mama's boy?"

"A kiss! Bet you drooled all over each other's faces, hahahaha! I sure missed hanging with the four of you while I was in warrior training, I would have traded fur off my own rear-end to see that!"

"You obviously have a lot of it to waste, then!"

Kneesaa shook her head and, as Paploo was laughing, she whispered to Latara:

"Forget about mama's boy and his comments, he's just teasing you, as usual. Go after your little honeydrop. You can bring him a mug of warm milk, it's cold up there."

Kneesaa followed Latara out and then ran after Paploo.

"Whom did you tell the secret tell while I was getting her out of the party?"

"Nobody…"

"Fine. And don't you dare to tell anybody, cousin! Lumat would ground Latara for the next ten moons if he found out! And knowing how cruel he can be, I would not forgive you! And I would tell your mother about all the stupid things you have ever done, and that's a lot!"

"Relax, I was just about to sip a glass of...ee cha waa ma, this is vile! And sour. Latara sure has a strange taste in berry juice! She sipped from this bottle a handful of times."

They smelled the contents of the bottle and decided to take it to Deej. He took a closer look, tasted the drink and shrugged.

"This is fermented berry juice, what I drink on particularly cold days, when I light my pipe. It was not intended for parties. Weechee and Widdle sure have a strange sense of humour. Those two rascals probably wanted to get Wicket tipsy in front of everybody, but he didn't even touch the drinks tonight."

Paploo almost laughed at the idea of a tipsy Wicket, but stopped when he saw disapproval in his cousin's eyes.

"He didn't, but Latara drank a lot of this."

"K'vark. Where is she now?"

"She went for a breath of fresh air, sir." said Kneesaa, subtly stepping on Paploo's foot.

"I guess she won't get far, then. Ugh, why do I trust my sons? Will they ever do anything right?"

Deej went to the other chamber, grumbling along the way. He was determined to deal with his sons later, in order not to spoil the party.

**Footnotes**

Chirita appears in Malani The Warrior and treats Wicket the same way Wicket treats Malani.

I'm implying that Lumat might be an abusive parent. The beginning of The Travelling Jindas pretty much proves it.

Tak is a character mentioned in The Raich, as one of Latara's supposed crushes, he turned out to be dating Kneesaa's older sister, Asha.

Flitchee is the Ewok who acts like a stereotype Texan at the end of ground battle in ROTJ…the one who fires from a blaster and goes WOOOHOO!

The "Knaa Naa" song does not exist, I made it up. The title indeed means Soul Trees in Ewokese.

Ee cha waa ma (alternate spellings: bee cha waa wa, ay chihuahua…) – gee whiz!

Great Tree – I assume this would be like Adam to humans, as Ewoks believe they're the descendants of it, as per Wicket's speech in ROTJ novelisation

The bizarre kiss Latara and Kneesaa mention is from The Tragic Flute and I never liked it...had they kissed in the first season, it would've probably been much cuter.


	3. Chapter 3

Latara climbed the slippery stairs to the top observatory, carrying two hot mugs in her hands. She found Teebo leaning against the wooden fence and trying to draw what he saw through Logray's telescope.

"Goopa, Teebo, didn't see you at Wicket's party, as I was late because of those two little barf-eaters at home. I brought you some warm blasé tree goat milk."

"Thank you!" Teebo looked down, smiling, as she approached the telescope.

"What are you looking at?"

"The stars are bright tonight; would you like to look at them?"

She took a glance, as he enthusiastically continued.

"That bright star over there...it's Kuna's Eye. And the one over there...um, it's Kuna's Tail. You know...if you mounted the fastest of Endorian creatures, a teek, it would still take you until the end of time to get there, that is how far it is! Stars…so mysterious, aren't they? They burn bright, but they don't turn to ashes like wood, so they must be made of something as flammable as wood and as hard as stone."

He's always been like this, she thought to herself - talking to trees, hearing colour and seeing what others couldn't see.

"Stop for a moment, Teebo. I can't follow. Tell me…where do you think you are now?"

"Strange question, but…I am at the observatory, to record the position of stars in the sky, so I can warn the Council of Elders if..."

"That's not what I meant, lurdo! Where do you think you will be five snows from now?"

He didn't say a word at first, and then he placed his hands on her shoulders and started rambling.

"The future is not clear, it keeps on changing as it comes along, it's never at peace, and it's never still. What the stars are telling me today might not be anything like what they will tell me later."

She was puzzled. In her current state, it all made even less sense than it would otherwise.

"You annoy me so much sometimes! You seem to have so many dreams that you can't even count them on your own six fingers! Is anything solid with you? Do you ever clearly say what you think? How do I know when you are for real?"

"Stop pulling the straps of my hat!"

"I am the hoodmaker apprentice. I can pull them as much as I want. They're basically your boss-me-around handles," she chuckled and took the hat off his head. "You need to wear something more suitable for your age, anyway. Not even Widdle would wear that anymore. And you, even though you're growing taller, you still look like...the same little boy with...large green eyes...I've always...never mind, this clearly isn't going anywhere! Here is an idea, to see if you can be clear about anything. How do I look like? Can you describe me?"

"Just a moment."

Snow was falling again and Teebo rushed to get the telescope inside. Latara was tapping her foot.

"You're something else!" he finally muttered, with a smile on his face.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He took a deep breath and continued.

"You're...eh...I mean...the only thing on Endor that is more beautiful than the rivers of colour in the sky I listen to when I'm alone. While your words are often coming across as screaming flaming red, like the way they do now I still hear them in soft pink…because it's you. And I don't think you believe me, so I will have to find another way to show you. Imagine this was words."

His voice was shaking. He wiped the snow off her face and, to her surprise, placed a soft kiss on her lips.

It was nothing like their first kiss, some months ago in an underwater cavern. This time there was no audience. No danger. No thrill. None of the things she yearned for so often were there, yet, she liked it. For a couple of minutes, there seemed to be nothing else in the world. No lights of the village underneath, no stars interspersed by snowflakes, not even the pinkish hue of Tana, always hanging from its corner of the sky. There was just the two of them, leaning on the observatory wall and kissing. The dreams she shared with her best friend on long raft rides were never this close. The dreams he only ever confessed to his Soul tree were coming true.

"Since I can't work when it's snowing like this, I guess we can head back to the party. I'm really hungry now!" he said, as he finally stopped to catch a breath and put his hat back on.

"WHAT ON ENDOR? You can make up rhymes, speak in animal tongues, but you are clueless about here and now! If we go back together, what do you think others will say? Say, how many snows have you witnessed?"

"I...I would need your hands too, to count them...and a pair of feet. A finger or toe less? Why? What did I say?"

"The moment your lips parted with mine, you went back to being a wokling again! A guy and a girl do not walk around just like that. Bozzie and other village blabbermouths would go straight to my father and tell him you probably took me to see the Light Spirit! That's what they have been saying about Asha and Tak some moons ago..."

"But you cannot just see the Light Spirit in one place! It's everywhere! Not even master Logray has seen it!"

"You ARE a lurdo! Who knows, maybe I only enjoyed kissing you because you put some sort of a spell on me, like you do with…disobedient animals!"

"What? Where did this come from? And why?"

"Figure it out for yourself, in any tongue you like. I'm going back. Good night."

She headed to the stairs.

"Watch out, it's sl..." Teebo couldn't even finish the sentence, Latara already slipped. He helped her up.

"There is something strange about you tonight, but I cannot quite put my fffff…"

She kissed him again, in the same near-violent way as in the cavern, then shook her head, pushed him away and disappeared in the night, before he could even go after her.

"Well, that was…strange. I guess I'm having a nightmare, a nightmare that started out like the most beautiful dream ever. Maybe if I pinch myself, I'll wake up?"

That didn't help.

Teebo sat on the top step and starred at the night sky until it got too cold. Unlike him, Latara promptly returned to the party. Only Kneesaa, Malani and Paploo were still there with the Warricks.

"W-what has happened? Where is everybody?"

"As the wind got stronger, somebody said that it's dangerous to be away from home, as the spirit of Denlett can push you off the platforms, aided by the wind. And what has happened to you? Dear child, you look so…sick."

Weechee stepped out.

"Shodu, she's not sick. She's…drunk. It's my fault. Dad already found out. I'm glad she came back from wherever she had wandered off to; otherwise I would not have been able to forgive myself. Now we have to make sure that Lumat doesn't find out. Kneesaa, perhaps the two of you can have a sleepover? You're home alone these days, anyway. Deej and I will go and tell Lumat and Zephee that Latara is with you, so they wouldn't worry."

"Good idea! Latara, you're going with me. And in the morning you'll tell me all about…your new song, right?"

Paploo followed Kneesaa and Latara to the royal hut. Wicket was thinking about where his party went wrong. It just wasn't meant to be this way. You don't come out of age every couple of moons, you come out of age only once in your life. How come all these simpletons were scared of the Denlett spirit, when a warrior apprentice like him could've protected them? At this point, he was not sure if some of the spirits actually existed, or if they were invented to scare woklings away from doing something particularly risky.

As he was pondering the existence of higher power, his best friend returned and frowned at the sight of the empty chamber.

"Seems that I arrived too late. Not that anything has been going well tonight…but I guess I can still have my piece of cake, right, Wicket?"

"I'm but your sister ate the piece we set aside for you, as well as many pieces before that…then she went outside and, you can guess what happened next. She's sleeping on a chair now, silly little girl."

"Not again…"

"By the way, you missed on a lot. At some point, Kneesaa sang a song and Latara was…well, interesting. I think she just set the record in dancing with most guys in a single evening and then she just…lost herself? It turned out that she drunk a lot of fermented berry juice Weechee intended to use to pull a prank on me."

There was no response, just a blank stare.

"Not you too, Teebo! What is wrong?"

"N-n-nothing! We will talk tomorrow, you must be tired. I'm going to carry my sister home, prepare one of Logray's herbal remedies for her, grab a snack and hit the hammock."

Teebo picked Malani up and got out of the hut, backwards, with a confused expression on his face. Wicket was now alone with his family.

"What a weird guy!" sighed Weechee, "He comes here, gives you that…strange…whatever it may be, then he leaves and comes back when everybody has gone home, you tell him about that little tart and how she behaved and he seems terrified…"

"He just had a long day, brother…"

"…which is a shame, the two of them would be a perfect match – they're both into those art things, beauty and whatever, they're useless to begin with and he's probably the only guy who would put up with her. And since he suddenly went from being a fleebog like you to being awkwardly tall, they'd even look cute together. Like a Phlog trying to romance a hill full of pretty flowers…I don't know."

Weechee was laughing at himself, as nobody found his remark particularly funny. Widdle went to sleep already, followed by the parents. Wicket took one last look at himself in the jug of water before putting out the fire in the pit. He knew that he was not going to grow much taller. Why did they have to remind him of that? He was capable of as much heroics as every other Ewok. And how come his brothers did not understand that he was no longer the baby of the family? Their sister, Winda, was already three snows old, they should have gotten used to her being the youngest. It seemed that he would still have to work to prove himself.

On the topmost level of the village, in a cozy hut just off the main square, Warok woke up from a vivid dream, having heard noise in the main chamber. Still sleepy, he was convinced that some spirits were messing with his winter supplies; so he got up, lit a lantern and went to see what's going on.

He was relieved. It was not the spirits - his son and daughter were sat at the dining table. They have returned from the birthday party at Warricks' home.

"Why aren't you in your hammocks? Not that I would control either of you, but it's very late."

"Malani overate and she's feeling very sick, and I had to run to the observatory, I missed the party and didn't have one single bite, so…I'm looking for something to snack on and I've also lit the pit to prepare a remedy for her."

"I'll join you, my son. Would you like a piece of ham from last snow season's supplies?"

"Nah, I'll be fine with some bread and jam. If I wasn't this hungry, I probably wouldn't care about eating at all. I wish tonight never happened."

Warok knew his son too well to shrug the last sentence off.

"Is it old Lumat's daughter again?"

"Yes." Teebo responded reluctantly, "She somehow got drunk on fermented sunberry juice, came to the observatory and insulted me a couple of times...I thought to myself 'now or never' and I kind of…told how I felt and we…eeeh…kissed…for a while. Then she went angry again and left."

"She insulted you and you kissed her? Sounds like you. But..."

"In my defense, it happened before and the first time around it was her doing, but this was completely different…dad, you won't tell Lumat about this, right?"

"Of course not – what I talk about to my son remains between the walls of this hut. It's enough that I have to actually share guard duties with that grouch every now and then, it's not like I have to talk to him. He remarried old, he was never meant to be a father. So…in any other situation, I would be happy…my son has first grown to be taller than me, he passed his apprenticeship, though not for what most parents would want, and now he's kissed a girl. Sadly, even if there wasn't for her father's disciplinarian attitude, this girl would still be trouble. I told you to give up on her long ago; everybody will want her at some point."

"I know, dad. She thinks I'm a child...and I'm one snow older than her. After kissing her, I suggested that we go back to Wicket's birthday party together and she rambled something about seeing the Light Spirit. I said that nobody can see the Light Spirit and she called me a lurdo."

Warok laughed and patted his son on the back.

"That's our little mystic, always looking at things from a higher tree. What if I told you that I saw the Light Spirit with your mother, that even Lumat saw it with Zephee? Do you understand it now? It's just a figure of speech."

His little mystic, half a head taller than both of his parents, pulled his hat over his face. Warok wasn't sure if he was ashamed of the idea of seeing the light spirit, his blissful ignorance towards the actual, tangible world, beyond the language of the trees and rivers of colours, or both.

"Your mother and I, we were a bit older than you. And we, umm…went to the forest after one such party, I believe it was the Sun King festival. And, as the snow was melting at the end of its season, we were blessed with a little boy. Nothing wrong about the Light Spirit. Of course, the Elders had a hearing for us, asking us why I didn't do the usual – built a hut, accepted gifts from females and picked one to marry. I don't regret this, I am happily married to somebody I really love and we have a warm home and two wonderful children."

"I understand. But I don't want to get married. I don't care about seeing the Light Spirit now. I just wish that those I care about, including you and mom, understood me a bit better. I've always felt alone in the crowd and I'm not even sure why. Now that I stand out with my height, it's even worse."

Warok didn't respond, he shook his head and went back to the other chamber. They had this discussion so many times and it would always end the same way.

Teebo finished making the remedy for Malani, woke her up and held her as she drunk it; then he carried her to their chamber and tucked her in with her straw doll, while she was still babbling something about dancing with Wicket.

If only his own feelings for somebody were as simple and straightforward as his sister's, he thought to himself, leaving his pouch and the hat on the hook. Once he got into the hammock, even with the blanket over his head, light from the full sistermoon seemed to be getting into his face. He looked at the celestial body, and suddenly, he had a feeling that it was laughing at him. Just like everybody else.

And then he fell through the hammock.

**Footnotes**

Oh, the astronomy. I do hope that Kuna constellation can be seen from the forest moon of Endor! After all, it's right above the galactic plane and considered a part of the Moddell subsector.

Latara actually calls her younger siblings barf-eaters multiple times in the cartoon series. I did not make it up.

Teek – the white gnome-ish creatures one of which appears in the Battle for Endor TV movie...and runs like freakin' Road Runnner or Speedy Gonzales.

Tana – Ewokese name for the actual gas giant Endor

Lurdo – idiot, weirdo, etc. Used throughout the cartoon series and in some parodies.

Sistermoon – one of the other Endor moons, presumably the closest one to the gas giant. Ewoks see it the same way we see our moon.

The romantic interplay between these two was really interesting in Rampage of the Phlogs and had they had more screen time in The Three Lessons, that could've been fun.

Yes, there's an observatory in the Bright Tree Village and Logray owns a telescope somehow. See the Night of the Stranger episode, season 2.

Yes, there's a reference to one of Yoda's more famous replies, assuming that a Force sensitive can figure out that much.

Chromestesia is an interesting type of synaesthesia and I recommend you to read about it. This is from the book mentioned in the first part's footnotes.

Taming disobedient animals? Check the first episode of the cartoon series in my reply above from 3:24 for the next 15 seconds. The discussion on that on the Republic Forces podcast is interesting, too.

With Light Spirit being the equivalent of god to Ewoks, whatever "taking somebody to see the Light Spirit" means has got to be…yeah, precisely that. It's Latara we're talking about! And this euphemism is obviously something I made up, as the series had no PG-rated elements.

One of the SW encyclopaedias says that a male is to build a hut and that females are to bring gifts and that he then picks one…I had to explain why the parents of these two were never present in the cartoon series (Warok appears twice and says "Uh?"at some point) and my only idea was to make them somewhat more free-spirited than the others and trusting their son to the point of allowing him to take care of his sister most of the time.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, the hunting party got back home, carrying a lot of small birds. As they were approaching the council hut, Romba looked down, observing the disappointment in the passerby's eyes. The hunters did not manage to locate anything large enough and they were about to face Kazak, the head elder. With other leaders of the tribe away, he was guaranteed to be more unpleasant than he would be in presence of Logray and Chirpa.

They slowly marched in. Kazak was standing next to the window, looking at the snow-covered roofs and platforms. He seemed to ignore them at first, until Tippet stepped out.

"Head elder Kazak, we have both good and bad news. We have returned from our hunt, and we have brought some game."

"And what would be bad news?"

"It's small game. We found traces of a large animal, Wunka believes it's a gurreck, but they got lost at some point, probably because of last night's heavy snowfall. So, err, this will be enough food for those who need it, and as for everything else, we will have to hunt again."

Kazak rolled his eyes.

"You have horns on your head, Tippet, yet you seem to have nothing on the inside, either. Are you aware of what's going to happen now?"

A couple of hunters were showing signs of disapproval.

"Yes, you are going to recruit a group of young Ewoks and take them with you. It's circumstances like this where they will learn to work for more than just themselves, their families and their egos. They will learn to work for the benefit of our entire village."

"But…"

"I don't want to hear no 'but', Tippet. This evening, I want to see them here and I want your party to leave by dawn. Chief Chirpa and Logray must not return to a supply hut that contains only fruits, nuts, vegetables and some smoked meat from earlier. And now get out of my sight, the days are short in the snow season and you will need to hurry up."

"But…"

"I said NO BUTS. Get out of here, now."

The hunters got out and stood in the square, wondering what would be the best thing to do. Some names popped up in the conversation. Romba mentioned the Warrick brothers, Wunka thought of Paploo. They eventually agreed to split and go from home to home, as not many villagers were outside on such a cold day.

Kneesaa was cleaning the walkway in front of the royal hut when she spotted one of the hunters.

"Goopa, my princess."

"Goopa, Graak, what is going on? Why are so many of our hunters walking around the village like that? Are we in danger? Did some large animal climb up here?"

"No, nothing like that. We're recruiting young ones to join us in the next hunt, as the hunting party did not manage to catch anything large enough to keep us fed for a longer period of time. At this point, we're asking for volunteers, but if we don't get a sufficient number of them, we're going to pick some ourselves. The volunteers are to gather at the council hut at sunset."

As Graak was making his way to the next hut, Kneesaa regretted that she was not allowed to apply, as she had to stay home and formally run the village with the council until her father returns. She was still somewhat bitter about past arguments with the governing body, who did not seem open to changes. They were surprised when Chirpa announced that she was his heir, they were against her taking part in the most recent Tree of Light expedition, so she tagged along with Latara. In so many other everyday situations, she felt repressed. In her mind, there was no difference between males and females, but sadly, the conservative villagers who were helping her father make decisions did not agree on this.

She finished cleaning and got back inside, just in time to wake up Latara, who was snoring in Asha's bed.

"Whaaa?! What a night! I had a series of really strange dreams, so glad I'm awake. Why am I not at home in my hammock, but in a…large bed full of red fur? Eww, talking about cleanliness…"

Latara stretched and turned around. She saw Kneesaa standing by the bed and laughing.

"Chak…my sister should really shed less, but there is nothing I can do about. Anyway, good morning, Latara! Do you even remember what happened last night?"

"No. I remember going to Wicket's birthday party and then…I woke up here. There are some other things I can think of, but I was probably dreaming."

Kneesaa took a deep breath and told Latara what happened. She was listening to it and while some bits of the story seemed to amuse her, she was genuinely shocked about trying to romance Tak.

"It's funny how these fermented berry drinks can bring out the worst in a person. I did intend to get some attention; after all, it's me we're talking about…but at the same time, I definitely did not want to approach every single person present, not in that way! So, you say that you encouraged me to go to the observatory and talk to Teebo? That would imply that my dream was not really a dream. Oh, k'vark, how am I going to solve this?"

"I cannot advise you if you don't tell me what happened. And since you've been sighing over Teebo for many snows now, I am pretty sure you owe me that much." the princess winked at her friend.

"You will be surprised as much as I was; I think…I was horrible. I kept on questioning his inner world. I'm pretty sure every other villager, regardless of the situation, would argue with me and tell me to get lost. Instead of it, he told me that he sees me as the most beautiful thing in his life and said that he's lost for words that could describe it further…and then he kissed me."

"Ee cha waa ma! Wait...knowing you, you probably pushed him away? Hit him?"

"Not this time, no. I was standing on my tiptoes until my feet started to hurt, cursing whatever caused him to grow this tall…and I was enjoying every moment of it. It was as cold as in Snow King's palace, the wind was blowing, but I closed my eyes, leaned on the wall and drifted off to…uh, this is so pathetic, forget I said it."

"Not pathetic at all. It's romantic! You have no idea how much I wanted this to happen, for both of you. I was starting to lose my hope…to the point where I assumed you'll suddenly be swept over your feet by some show-off type and that he would become a hermit like his master, sort of…"

Latara frowned.

"You're not laughing. Does this mean you messed things up afterwards?"

"Well, yes. He stopped kissing me and suggested we go back to the party because he was hungry. I took that pretty hard and said that everybody would know about us and think we…"

"I see. And I still don't see the problem. If I ever get to rule this village, I promise to stay out of my people's relationships, morals and family planning. Mark my words."

"Anyway, he had no idea what I was talking about. I'm always puzzled by his naivety, but that and thinking of his stomach just…ruined the moment for me. Now I wonder why I overreacted, but hey, a girl can be wrong, right?"

"A girl can also be very drunk and occasionally full of..."

"What? You wouldn't want your guy to be a bit more of a…guy-guy?"

"I would. But I like rogues, as I've never been one. If you were every paying attention to anybody other than yourself, you would've noticed that I mention unrequited love pretty often. My crush, whoever it is, as I'm not ready to reveal it at this time is more of a guy-guy. But you, you're lying right now. You don't like my cousin Paploo because he's a rogue, you argued with Wicket on multiple occasions because you're both like fire, you never think before you do or say things…and that's precisely why you like Teebo – you're not like the other girls and he's not like the other guys. Also, you have power over him."

"I guess you're right. And what should I do right now?"

"The next time you're alone with him, just be yourself and don't judge him for being who he is."

"I get it, I get it…by the way, whom you were talking to and what is going on?"

"It was Graak, one of the hunters. They could not catch anything big enough to keep the village fed for a longer period of time, so they're gathering young volunteers to join them. I know Wicket will want to go and today is the first time he's actually eligible. I think Paploo will want to go, too…come to think, you could give it a go as well. You don't have to stay here and pretend you know how to run a village."

"Me? Sleep in a tent, wrestle with wildlife and go for a day or more without washing up and brushig my fur…?"

"Yes, you. I think it would serve you well. Plus, since your little honeydrop is filling in for his master, you can spend some time away from him, contemplating on this. If he comes around looking for you, I will talk to him. I think we're almost on the same wavelength when it comes to...certain experiences with others."

Latara never thought about doing such a thing. And why would she, in the first place? As the village's hoodmaker apprentice, she never had to worry about anything – she'd help out the head hoodmaker whenever necessary, come and go into the sewing hut as she pleases and it was always warm and quiet there. On the other hand, if she was gone for a couple of days, chances of somebody telling her father about last night were slim. The hunters were mostly older Ewoks and, if the Warrick brothers indeed came along, there would be somebody to keep her company. The only thing she would have to put up with other than the cold would be Paploo and his constant teasing. That wasn't enough to keep her away from an adventure.

"That's it, I'll be going! Some thrill will make me forget last night more easily."

"And that's how I like you!"

The two friends went to have breakfast in the warm central chamber. Everything seemed much better than at the party, all of the sudden.

Later that day, Shodu was cleaning up the mess from last night, when she was visited by a pair of hunters, with a request for Weechee, Widdle and Wicket to join the hunt. The oldest of the brothers went to wake up the other two.

"Wake up, wake up! It's past lunchtime, but that is not what matters most. We were invited on a hunt. Yubnub!"

Widdle muttered a couple of k'varks and turned to the other side. Unlike him, Wicket literally jumped off the hammock.

"We? As in…the two of you, but me as well?"

"Of course, you're old enough for that now, you little lurdo. We're supposed to have a talk with the Head Elder Kazak at the Council Hut in the evening and we would head off at dawn. The village needs some new hunters in order to trace something big enough to keep us fed. Up for it?"

"Why do you even ask? I'm thrilled! I don't even have to look for a loophole this time."

He got up and put the hood on. On the hook behind it, there was his old orange one. He'd almost forgotten about it, ever since he got the green one. It smelled of early years, adventures concluding with finding Asha and the days when he wasn't as confident as he is now. Perhaps he's taken this belt of honour thing too far? No. It just cannot be.

"Wicket, are you hungry?" Shodu caught him thinking, "Oh, you never wear that one anymore! I loved it. I loved it when we knew what you were up to and when you..."

"I know!" he smirked, less patient than the other night, "I know all that, but I'm a grown-up now. How come nobody understands that?"

Shodu sighed and went to check on the cauldron of stew on the firepit, as her three boys and a girl sat at the table. She wasn't in the mood for explaining what it is like to watch one's children grow up for Father Tree knows which time. Her children would always be children to her. As she was listening to Weechee talk about hunting during their meal together she, however, wondered if they lived in two separate worlds.


	5. Chapter 5

On his way to the council hut, Wicket decided to drop by master Logray's hut. He walked in just as Teebo was giving something from a large jar to a visitor complaining about a head cold.

"Just take another one of these in the morning and you should be fine. Chak, master Logray made it, don't worry about it. Oh, look who's here to see me. Have you recovered from your party yet, Wicket?"

"Goopa! I sure did and I'm on my way to joining the hunting party. Whoa...you look worn out. Your eyes are half-closed."

"I'm tired...I barely slept. The hammock broke and I could only sleep on the floor. Not sure what we'll do about it."

The young shaman sat down by his friend.

"So, why are they hunting? Are our supplies of meat really that low?"

"I'm afraid they are."

"I could give you something to warm you up during the expedition. It's going to be even colder for the next couple of nights and the root or p..."

"Just imagine what will happen if I'm the one who finds that gurreck! These people who doubt me would finally shut up! And I could complete my belt of honour, effortlessly!"

"Wicket, you are not listening to me..."

"All hail the mighty warrior! He's truly one of a kind! Let's hear it for..."

While his friend was once again all caught up in his daydreaming of fame, Teebo went to the large map on the hut wall and found himself quietly rewinding the recent events. Everybody, with exception of Kneesaa, has been self-centered, to the point where he was looking forward to some quiet time. He loved Wicket like the younger brother he never had, but for the past year or so, they haven't had a proper conversation, as each attempt to have one would end just like it did now. Paploo, who was the only person who could get him angry to the point of wanting to fight him in the past, has not been around their group of friends for a long time, and despite being only slightly older than him, he seemed to be looking at them from an adult's point of view. At least that lurdo couldn't openly bully him anymore. For once, growing tall for an Ewok had some perks.

He was trying not to think about Latara, but she popped up on his mind, uninvited, just like in any other situation. Whatever they had or did not have has been going on for so long. She became friends with Kneesaa when Lumat returned to the village with his new wife after a long time spent elsewhere. And he took an instant liking to her; it only seemed natural for an aspiring poet to be attracted to an aspiring musician. It would often look as if it was mutual, as her voice was remarkably different in his presence, she'd often grab his hand in dangerous situations, brush against him and he'd still smile thinking of that time when they danced together right before the stranglethorn plant nearly destroyed the village. After that, he was determined to do something about it, but at this point in time, he was sure that asking his father for advice made it worse. The moment he started openly courting that girl, she appeared to no longer want him and the more he tried to get her attention, the more he made a fool of himself, going against his nature, saying things he never thought he would say and spending nights awake questioning his own doings, which would result in numerous mistakes at work and only a passing grade the first time his skills were tested. The unexpected kiss some months ago made it even more confusing. After last night, when he finally got the courage to reciprocate, he could feel her heart melt, only so it would get colder than ever the very next moment. All because of the Light Spirit. He would not confess that to his dad, but he did think of it before - he just didn't understand why she brought it up like that. Why was everybody of his age suddenly all about that? Love is just not that simple! There's so much more to it.

Hearing footsteps brought him back from his thoughts.

"Endor to Teebo...are you there?"

"Latara? I mean Kneesaa...goopa! Wait, wasn't Wicket here when I last looked?"

"He was, but he had to run to the council meeting. Now it turns out that they need you and me there as well, so I came here to let you know."

"Is that...now?"

"Chak, let's go. And by the way...I know what happened last night and I wanted to talk about it later. I want to help!"

At this point, Teebo wanted something to come crashing down from space and take him away. But his friend was pulling his hand and he had to go. They got to the council hut, which was packed with the village youth. Everybody was chatting loudly, he couldn't get lost in his own thoughts anymore. And then he spotted Latara. What was she doing here?

"Quiet!" Head elder Kazak yelled at the present Ewoks. Most didn't even see him go in. Where did he come from?

"That's better. Then again, being quiet is probably the only thing some of you are capable of. I assume you already know why you're here. The council needs a group of young warriors, warrior apprentices, scouts and whoever else is interested to help our hunters out. The supplies of meat are low and, in this cold, whatever else we have just won't do. As per our tradition, in such cases, we need all the help we can get. And to be a part of this expedition, you have to be brave, tough and up for challenge. For those who aspire to be warriors, this is a good chance to add some more trinkets to your hoods, necklaces and belts of honour!"

The crowd started chatting again. A handful of present Ewoks left, the others looked to the old retired warrior sitting in the centre of the massive table again. But he was done with his speech and he only had one question for them.

"So, who's applying? No hands up, come here. I want to see you."

The Warrick brothers, Paploo, Latara and a couple of others stepped out. Kazak noticed something he wasn't used to seeing.

"A girl in the hunting party? What do you do otherwise?"

"I am the resident hoodmaker apprentice, sir. I thought I could help with the traps, if something needs sewing or strengthening."

A couple of hunters laughed. Kazak was puzzled.

"That's nice. But I am not sure if you understand what it means to be a hunter. The party may travel for hours with no stopping. It will be cold. Is your shiny fur up for that and can you stand seeing your pretty hat stuck to a thorn, your little feet sinking in snow?"

Latara's angry pout didn't seem to change Kazak's attitude. He's been in more battles than he could remember and he couldn't recall that girls were taking a part in any of them. They would sit at home and wait for their men to come back. They would mourn them if they were gone. They would weave baskets and cloth, not go to a war or a hunt. Or at least that's how it had to be. He was about to say something witty again, and then he looked around and, noticing two young Ewoks sitting by his side, he remembered something – he had to deal with that other girl, the one he couldn't be snarky to, as well as that lurdo whom Logray appears to adore.

"Please, give us some time to decide if you can be a part of the group. In the meantime, as everybody knows, our mighty chief and our shaman are away and they wouldn't be back for another couple of days. I thought I would therefore invite their stand-ins to take a part of this meeting, as guests.

"We're ruled by a girl and healed by the clumsy guy?" somebody joked from the crowd, "No wonder the snow is falling and we're out of food, it's a curse!"

"No curse has been thrown on this village ever since the demise of Morag, the Tulgah witch…" said one of the guests.

"You are silly. Can't you see that I'm being ironic about your and the girl's abilities? And now we're meant to have another girl - in the hunting party, out of all places. Let's see what your bookish memory can say to that…shaman." the interrupter accented the last word.

"The trees didn't object to Latara's request, I am going to check the stars again tonight", Teebo was not feeling comfortable, but he continued, "…and see if there is anything unusual, but I just don't see why there would be. As far as the two of us are concerned, Princess Kneesaa and I, if you care about our opinion at all, we would go ahead with this…because…err…err…umm…"

Kneesaa noticed her friend's confusion and jumped in.

"…because we already have at least two promising female warriors, one of whom is my sister. I don't see a reason why my friend Latara, whom I value highly, wouldn't be allowed to try something new. We had numerous adventures together in the past couple of years and she can pull this out."

"I say no." the head elder banged his fist against the table.

"And I say yes, and my word counts as my father's word would. So, she's going."

Wicket nudged one of his brothers. Second later, all three Warricks and Paploo clapped. A couple of others shrugged and clapped as well. Kazak had no choice but to change his mind. He told the group to be ready before the dawn, assigned a leader and dismissed the meeting. Everybody was ready to leave, so did the two young stand-ins, but he asked them to stay behind.

"Princess Kneesaa? What on Endor do you think you're doing? The council is not going to put up with this kind of uh…power abuse. I am aware that the girl is your friend and that the other ones who applied are pretty much all from your circle of friends as well, but you're not allowed to…"

Kneesaa sighed.

"I am not allowed to...what? With all due respect, Kazak, you were the one who was against my father's decision to announce that I would succeed him, and you nearly fell off your chair laughing when Logray publicly confirmed that Teebo would be trained to become our new shaman in future, despite nobody else in the village having natural powers from the earliest childhood. Why don't you trust us young ones?"

"Your blood is boiling, your young hearts are preoccupied with having fun, making love, showing off and leaving an impression on your peers and…I just don't know."

"At least our hearts still…beat." Teebo interrupted him, "and I don't understand why you think we're all the same. We're not."

"Your poetry fails to impress me, young one, as I remember the day you had to be taken away on a leash…but fine. Have it your way and stay alert, both of you. I'll be checking on what you're doing. And I want you to be present in this very hut when I'm out, just in case. Want power? You'll have to work hard for it."

He angrily walked away, and the two young Ewoks remained behind, wondering what has just happened. Whatever was in Kazak's head, he clearly had his own opinion that was not possible to change in one night. Neither of them was power-hungry in any way, they were just assuming their responsibilities and acting accordingly. Looks like a lot of water would have to flow below the ice on the Yarlubb River and a lot more snow to fall over the village in order to prove him that.


	6. Chapter 6

As the sunlight from Ibleam was barely peeking through the treetops at the break of dawn, a group of hunters was ready to leave Bright Tree Village. With their blankets rolled on top of their backpacks carrying only the bare essentials and whatever weapons they were using, from the platforms they looked like dots in the snow. About dozen of males and one female were set to find enough food to last for one moon.

Hunched over a cart covered in ice and still containing a couple of leftover honey melons from the most recent harvest, Teebo was writing something down in a hurry. It seemed that his timing was right. Right below, in the snowy field, away from the rest of the hunters, Latara was showing Widdle Warrick how to tie a blanket to his backpack.

"This is not working! No matter what I do, it falls off!" moaned the scout.

"Just tie a knot right here!"

Widdle tried it himself. Just when he was about to finally fix the blanket to the backpack, a snowball hit him on the head. He looked up to the platforms, but he couldn't see anything.

"Some lurdo is playing pranks on me!" he screamed and ran towards the group, "How on Endor would anybody put effort into waking up this early solely to mess with me?"

"Chak, poor you...you totally don't deserve it, it's not like you would ever put so much effort into pranking somebody." grinned Latara, and then looked up to the treetops herself. She noticed a pink lantern bird feather peeking from the cart. As if nothing had happened the other night, she lit up and jumped. Teebo got up from behind the cart and waved what looked like a piece of parchment. She pointed to herself. He nodded and got ready to toss it.

"Stop giggling and get back to the group! Now!"

Wunka appeared out of nowhere and pulled Latara away, to take her to the group. She shook her head and slapped him on his wrist.

"I can go myself, this is not captivity...k'vark..."

A little later, head elder Kazak was observing the hunters from the top of the main stairway, accompanied by Kneesaa who, once again, didn't seem particularly happy to be around him.

"As you can see, they're about to leave. I provided some basic guidelines to Wunka, so I do not need to personally address the hunters. He will join them soon."

"My father is almost never present when the hunting parties are leaving, so why did you wake us up at this hour?"

"There are two reasons, princess. One is simple – I wanted to see if the two of you would really show up as early. The other, I need to give you a list of tasks for the day...whenever your friend stops fooling around that cart and tossing snowballs..."

"Teebo, come here!"

"Sorry, I had to…finish something. And now I have to head and prepare a batch of..."

"No, you don't. The two of you will be watching the woklings today."

"The woklings? Why?"

"Since you insisted on your friend joining the hunting party and she was always the first choice for the village-wide babysitter, I assumed it would not be a problem for you to replace her. After all, your hearts are full of love, or whatever it was that you said last night after the meeting."

"But we haven't babysat the woklings in ages!" protested Kneesaa, "Also, didn't you say that you want us at the council hut when you're not there? And didn't master Logray ask Teebo to spend at least some time of the day at his hut and prepare flu medicine, if anybody needs any, given that it's the snow season and…"

"You'll do fine. You can take the woklings to the royal hut, I'm sure the great chief would not mind, as he thinks his daughter is capable of everything, either way. And if anybody needs medicine, they'll be directed there, too. Now, move on."

As the two friends were going to pick Nippet and Wiley from Zephee's, muttering silent k'varks directed at Kazak, the hunters stood still before Wunka.

"Good morning! I will be leading this expedition, as Tippet went to visit somebody in another village, which is strange, but whatever. Apart from him, it seems that nobody bailed out. Head elder Kazak won't, err, WILL be pleased to know that."

"Here it goes again..." griped Wicket, but the experienced hunter noticed that his lips were moving.

"The youngest of the Warricks can leave if he's not happy about this. Also, I hope that the lady aboard will be able to make it with her heavy load, though it appears that she's leaving the heaviest of baggage at home."

Nobody in the group said anything.

"What? Lighten up, all of you; I don't know if you were with or against Kazak on this matter! I was just testing you!"

"Yeah, right!" said Weechee, "Now that we passed the test, can you please not bring it up again?"

They finally moved on. Latara was walking next to Paploo and Wicket. Nobody seemed in the mood for talking as they were still sleepy; so, at some point, she initiated the conversation with the chief's nephew.

"So, mama's boy, what are we supposed to do? Other than prove ourselves?"

"So, great seductress, for now, we have to find traces of a carnivorous animal large enough for our goal. Then we will try and locate it. Once it's been spotted, there really are only two options. We either chase it or..."

"...wait until it comes out of wherever it's hiding?"

Paploo didn't expect Latara to finish his sentence. While he did not necessarily hold Kazak's opinion on girls, he didn't understand them all that much and this particular one has always been a puzzle to him. She would talk back, fight back. The more he thought of it, the surer he was that she belonged with this expedition. But how was he to admit it? How was he then to talk to her without further discrediting himself? All the things that used to bring him authority in his peer group were slowly fading away - he was no longer the tallest, he was not the only aspiring warrior, he was not even the only one with an overly protective parent.

The group scouted the forest around the village for a couple of hours and they didn't find anything. As if all the large animals have run away from somebody or something, as if it was too cold for them to come out. Usually, after a search this long, traces, droppings or carcasses of whatever a large predator ate would surface.

"Something is wrong here," said Weechee, mostly to himself, but the expedition leader overheard it.

"Why? Perhaps the animals have gone to the grasslands or even the desert. It would not have been the first time such a thing happens. When it's too cold, they may migrate, even if it's just for one moon."

"No. I cannot recall two expeditions in a row ever having failed. And I've been hunting for a long time. Weechee has the point!"

Romba sat down to elaborate on what he just said.

"My grandfather told me that many snows ago an evil creature chased all of the animals out of the forest and the only ones who could get close to them were the shamans. At that time, the village he hailed from had a shaman who eventually fell to the hands of the Night Spirit. That was one of the reasons they eventually abandoned their home in the mountains, separated and went to find new places to live. The said shaman might still be walking around and maybe he the ability to manupulate animals!"

A couple of hunters swallowed a lump. The most recent brush with anything related to the Night Spirit nearly banished them all to the Otherworld. This couldn't be it, it had to be something of this world, something one sees every day.

Wunka was quick to dismiss the speculation.

"You're just tired. We will take a break, eat something and then continue. Stemzee, light us a fire!"

Wicket sat down next to his brothers and friends. He did not want to admit it, but his feet were feeling numb from hours spent outside in cold. He opened his backpack and reached for the food Shodu prepared, but he felt something that he was sure he never packed. He pulled out the strange wheeled object he got from Teebo and Malani.

Paploo laughed and then bit his tongue, as the belt he and his mother made and the straps of the small bag were tangled up in between wheels of the object.

"Weechee? Widdle? Is this yet another of your stupid pranks?"

The two giggled.

"You'd better hide that, Wunka can hear anything and everything. Perhaps he would expel you from the hunt for bringing toys with you."

"Is that what you wanted? To get me out of my first big hunt on the day after my birthday?"

Wicket angrily turned around and headed for the nearby bushes, as his brothers were still giggling. Latara followed him.

"Wait! Perhaps I could help you."

"You? The resident snarker? You can only make me feel worse; my pride is dropping at the speed of a teek."

"I know, that's why I…"

" And what do you know about hurt pride?"

"If I didn't know about it, I wouldn't have been here right now. I ran away from everything – my family, my music, my crafts, the villagers who think I've courted them at your party…and my love interest!"

"Your love interest? Right…let me guess, is it a reflection of you in a puddle?"

"Stop being so hostile and listen to me for once!"

He stopped at the nearby stump and sat down. She continued.

"Wicket, you need to stop taking everything in your life for granted and expecting everybody to understand you. I know you're slightly younger than the rest of us, but still. You have a large, loving family. You get away with everything because of your reputation, as well as your talent to charm everybody. So, stop complaining!"

There was no answer. The short Ewok was fuming and clutching his fists.

"So?"

"So what? What is so unusual about it? I come from an important family, and I am a promising warrior! Aren't you getting what you want, too? Because you're a pretty girl?"

"Take that back! Or...are you jealous that I was never into you and fawning to you?"

"I'd rather have your grandmother be into me. My brother is right; you are nothing but a tart!"

Latara didn't need to know which of the brothers said that, or if any of them said such a thing at all. She slapped Wicket upside his face. He snarled and, as he was about to push her, Paploo stepped in between them.

"Stop that right now! We're freezing here, there is a big problem we have no solution for and the two of you are trying to skin each other alive!"

"Are you telling ME to stop? Tell that to this neckless Dulok dropping, not me! He called me a tart, just because I told him the way things really are and how privileged he is!"

"Don't trust her! She insulted me! And she thinks she can say anything she wants to, but I'm not Teebo, and I won't put up with that!"

The chief's nephew had no idea that he'd just opened a can of worms. This was the first time he experienced what the two of his more extraverted friends were like without the two others around.

And he didn't like it one bit.

"Let's go back. I said that the two of you needed to err, relieve yourselves, but I knew that I would find you arguing."

He brought the two back and the group sat down to eat in a clearing. The two older Warricks were still determined to give the beginners a hard time. Widdle wrapped the back of his hood into a braid and made bedroom eyes and pouts at everybody. Weechee grabbed a handful of snow and started adding snowballs to an imaginary belt of honour.

Paploo shook his head.

"Can you two come with me for a bit? I thought I saw something in that tree over there"

Weechee and Widdle shrugged and followed him.

"So…what did you see?"

"Nothing. There's something we need to talk about. You two make me sick. Can you stop wasting your time on Wicket and Latara and think about the hunt? They are being ridiculous, but this is their first time taking part!"

"First time requires a steady dose of hazing."

"No, it doesn't! Not in a situation like this."

"You are not leading this hunt, you cannot tell us what to do."

"That's true, but I know what you did at the party, and I could share that with everybody else. You would be in trouble. So, how about we make a deal: you stop hazing my friends and I don't tell anybody about the fermented berry drink and toy pranks."

"That's blackmail, Paploo."

"Chak, but you have no other choice. My cousin will trust me on this and I'm sure both Wicket and Latara would testify."

The two prankster brothers had to admit their defeat. They felt somewhat betrayed. This was not the Paploo they knew, the one who would argue with them, but also go out of his way to make things harder for others. What was happening to him?


	7. Chapter 7

Half a day's walk to the north, Chukha-Trok and Asha were patrolling the forest as the earlier would usually do each winter morning, afraid that the lean and green distant cousins of their own species were up to no good again. Two snows ago, the redhead warrior herself chased them out of the forest, but knowing their ways and short memory, they could've been back.

The burly woodcutter sniffed the air and then shook his head. So many scents typical for the forest were simply absent, as if there were no living creatures in it. Seconds later, he tripped onto something. He muttered a single k'vark and started digging in the snow, solely to find a carcass. He uncovered a dead yayax cub. He picked it up, examined it and noticed that there was no sign of injury, not even a single wound. The carcass' bones were not broken, either. Even its neck was intact.

"Asha, you'd better come see this. I have not seen anything like it ever since I inherited this duty!"

She observed the dead animal and shrugged.

"Do you think it was poisoned? I can't find any remains of a dart, nor I think it vomited prior to its death. Otherwise, it would stink even more."

"No. Whoever or whatever has killed it is using a method we're not aware of. I'm worried."

"Me too. Let's get rid of it before it could attract any unwanted guests."

They said a prayer to the Father Tree and buried the yayax, after having managed to dig a hole in the frozen soil using the wood-cutting axe. As they were having a very modest breakfast back in the cave outpost, Chukha-Trok was thinking out loud.

"I don't understand this. If this was Duloks, we would see their traces, we would be able to make out their vile odour, their swamp breath...I mean, we would just KNOW it's them!"

"I agree,they are not capable of doing something like this and getting away with it. Also, did this animal somehow escape a place where all of the other animals were taken and paid with its life for doing so? Do you think it would be a good idea if you were to go back to the village and report it?"

"And leave you here, unprotected?"

"Arandee, Chukha, I spent fourteen snows in the woods, I can take care of myself. If I come across anything that I can't handle, I will summon a korrina and get away from this place. As a matter of a fact, I might summon them to sleep here with me. Just go and don't worry about me."

Chukha-Trok mounted a bordok and rode away. It was only an hour later when he realized the obvious – how was Asha to summon her korrinas when the larger animals were nowhere to be found?

He sighed. It wouldn't have been the first time the chief's older daughter tricked him. During most of the years she spent in the wild, she somehow managed to evade both him and the woodsman before him. There were times when he would fall in her traps, get bruises and cuts and swear he would find the prankster whoever they may be. Once she decided to reveal herself, he forgot most of it and assured her that he was not angry and that her causes were indeed noble, but that wasn't stopping her from using his naivety every now and then.

With those thoughts, after a couple of hours of riding through the snow, he arrived to the village, left the bordok in the warm stable and headed straight to the royal hut, hoping to speak to chief Chirpa. Instead of him, he encountered princess Kneesaa and Teebo in the middle of what looked like a food fight with a bunch of woklings. The situation seemed to be getting out of control. The princess had a bowl full of some sort of a vegetable dish stuck on top of her head and the food was dripping all over the floor. Malani was trying to get it off her head, while her younger friends were tossing whatever they could find on the table at her, as if she had betrayed the ways of woklings. The infant Winda Warrick was sitting in a high chair, laughing at her unfortunate babysitters, covered in the remaining food up to her shoulders.

The woodsman was bemused.

"What kind of a war did I just run into? Can't anybody else babysit these brats?"

"No!" yelled Teebo who was running after Wiley and Nippet, in hopes of reclaiming his satchel, "Head elder Kazak assigned this to us next to some other odd duties, as the usual babysitter is out hunting! No, no, don't touch that! ANYTHING BUT THAT! Uh…too late."

Wiley got his little hands on a piece of parchment, with something scribbled on it, solely to stick it in his mouth. Teebo shook his head. The mischievous little Ewok continued running towards the fire pit, but Chukha-Trok picked him up as if he was handling korrina cubs.

"Now I got you, you little rascal! Pal, sorry about…whatever the writing you cherished was."

"Well, at least he didn't take the utility knife." the shaman apprentice muttered as he was dusting his bag, while Kneesaa was trying to get food out of her white fur, "What brings you here? And why isn't Asha with you?"

"Good question…really, where is my sister?"

"She decided to remain in the cave, as otherwise we could risk losing a bunch of innocent animals to Duloks and their unethical ways. I've come here as we encountered something really strange and I want to report it to your father and master Logray, immediately!"

"They're not here, they're visiting the Tulgah traders and they will be back in a couple of days. The village is a mess right now – it's the two of us vs. head elder Kazak and most of the young warriors have gone to aid the hunters."

"Aid the hunters? Where did they go to? There is no single animal worth hunting in the forest, only rodents, birds and an occasional maramu. As for predators…can't remember the last time I saw any. Asha and I came across a carcass with no visible traces of any living thing around it. Whatever is going on, we are in trouble. And it's not the kind of trouble that somebody as simple as me can grasp…and that is why I was hoping Logray would be around."

Teebo and Kneesaa looked at each other in hope for clues and ideas, realizing they had none. This was precisely what the head elder Kazak would want to happen – something was coming the village's way and they were too young and inexperienced to handle it. The only things they could do was search through the scrolls, bottles and jars.

They headed over to master Logray's hut, leaving Malani with the woklings.

"You betrayed us!" claimed Leeni the moment they were gone, "I thought you would play with us and make a mess!"

Malani didn't know how or why they couldn't understand that she had to be nice. Kneesaa was best friends with nobody other than her crush, why would she want to go against her? Perhaps, if she continued being nice, she'd be able to be the first to greet Wicket when he's back from wherever everybody has gone to. All of this was enough for her age of eight snows to comprehend, but her much younger friends would probably just tease her about it.

"Chak, you betrayed us, you're a telltale and that's why I won't give you this!" Wiley waved a piece of parchment in front of Malani's face, "I stole this from your brother!"

"Maybe it's a magic spell!" gushed Nippet.

"Or maybe it's instructions on how to operate something master Logray invented!"

"GIVE THAT BACK!" Malani went after Latara's younger siblings and eventually caught Wiley by his bandanna, tripped him and landed on top of him, "I SAID GIVE THAT BACK."

Wiley was terrified of his friend. She never seemed to care much about anything that belonged to her older brother, or pretty much anybody else. It was always about Wicket, Wicket and even more Wicket. He dropped the piece of parchment and climbed on top of the cupboard.

"Climb here with me!" he yelled to Leeni, Nippet and little Winda, "She is a lurdo, just like her brother!"

He barely managed to duck, as a large piece of honey melon was flung his way.

"Take it back, Wiley! My brother is not a lurdo!"

"But…but my sister Latara says that he is." claimed the wokling.

"Your sister also says you're a barf-eater, which I couldn't agree more on right now!"

Malani nearly snarled at four woklings on top of the cupboard, went to Kneesaa's chamber and hid under the bed, to try and read the writing on the parchment in peace. If her brother was trusted with some serious wizard business, that was not to be lost. At the same time, she thought that there would be nothing wrong with taking a sneak peak. After all, she could hear the trees to a certain extent as well; perhaps, just perhaps she would be able to perform a spell, if it was a spell at all.

It took her a while to make sense of the writing, as she had only started to learn the basics of the complicated sign alphabet the Ewoks were using and, at the same time, her brother's signs were messily drawn and a couple of them were crossed, out of the line, one piece of parchment was even torn away.

Malani's excitement was fading away, as she was reading. She blushed. This was not a spell, not a secret plan, nothing like that. It was a love poem and there was a mention of kissing! And kissing was gross, gross, gross…unless it was to involve her and Wicket, of course.

She folded the note and hid it underneath her hood, then went back to the central chamber. Her friends, who'd climbed down the cupboard in the meantime, immediately ran away again. Not used to having any power over them, she laughed at herself and sat down to finish her lunch in peace.

Hours away, Asha was having her meal too, in the cave. It was about to get dark, just like it would on any other short winter day. She was worried where her former family could be. The Korrinas who raised her could defend themselves, but the sole idea of a predator large enough to destroy them or an enemy evil enough to manipulate the forest creature was consuming her mind, to the point she could barely eat.

She had ideas on what to do, though none seemed good enough. Perhaps Logray and that clumsy apprentice of his could perform a summoning ritual? Or use the Sunstar? No, that seemed ridiculous, Sunstar never functioned that way. How about getting the Duloks to cooperate and join the search? They would probably turn that against the Ewoks. Getting far enough to find others who could help? No, the Happy Grove was too far away from other forests known for Ewok settlements, and they were hard to reach at this time of the year.

She got outside for some fresh air, and the silence, only interrupted by an occasional chirp of a bird was something she was not used to. The forest was supposed to be alive and be an orchestra of multiple sounds. Nothing has changed since Chukha-Trok parted that morning, and he's got to have been back in the village by now, unless something had happened to him. Could it be so?

And then, all of the sudden, a fireball headed towards the sky in the distance, accompanied by roaring noise. Asha ducked and covered her head with her hood. When she looked up again, while it seemed that some treetops in the distance were slightly charred, there was no sign of forest fire.

"Hmmm, I'd better scout the area!" the red-furred Ewok mumbled to herself.

Asha returned to the cave, donned her snowshoes and filled a bag with some basic tools that could be useful. She slurped the rest of her soup and set off as the sun was setting.


	8. Chapter 8

At master Logray's hut, the princess and the woodsman were waiting as the shaman apprentice was trying to make Logray's crystal image spinner work. They were tilting their heads, trying to follow the gadget as it spun around the stone table, hoping they would see something, but the glass sides of the relic remained blank. The most Teebo could make out of it was a quick glimpse of what looked like fog over a bunch of tall, straight rocks. No sign of his master, no sign of the great leader of their tribe, either.

"I thought you would know how to do this by now!" fumed Chukha-Trok, "You've been playing wizard here since you almost got your master killed by that witch!"

"I'm sorry! I just never had to be the first to use it. I know what to do when it's spinning on its own, but this is completely different. It takes somebody with years of experience to initiate the connection. Also, if master Logray and chief Chirpa are with the Tulgah traders, you have to remember that Tulgah are all magical, so a large number of them might be disrupting the spinner. It doesn't have to be an error on my behalf!"

Teebo blurted that out in a fashion unusual to him, without stopping to take a breath, hoping that the point he was trying to make will be more effective that way. Sadly, Chukha-Trok wasn't that easy to convince. Simple-minded and brave, there he was, facing his polar opposite in the only Ewok coming even close to his stature.

"So, are we going to sit here and wait until you figure it out? I don't have the time for this."

"I explained what I think the problem was. There's nothing more I can do. We have to wait for my master."

"You better think of something. This could produce so many new problems on the long run."

Teebo wished Wicket was around. He would've known how to get him and Kneesaa out of this situation, with his little white lies that would've bought them some time.

At the same time, on the other side of the forest, Wicket, donning his snowshoes as another blizzard was getting ready, sighed and thought to himself:

"I wish Teebo was here. He could get out on a clearing and perform one of his animal calling rituals. Something, anything would come to him and it would tell him what's going on. That way we would not be as lost as we are right now."

His older brothers, standing next to him, laughed.

"Chak, that's just what we need - another girl in the expedition."

"Last time I checked, he was a boy. Right, Latara?" Paploo nudged his friend and winked. She had not said a word after her argument with Wicket, but this made her unusually talkative. She grabbed her friend by wrist and pulled him aside.

"W-what? What did you check? What is going on? Is there something I don't know?" Latara screamed.

Paploo laughed. The Warricks didn't even understand what was going on – Wicket was angry and the other two had already established the hunting newcomer as a person too dangerous to get involved with in any way.

"I was kidding; I was trying to make you smile. It seems that you had drifted away to some other place after you argued with Wicket."

"But, you just said…"

"Relax, I don't like boys, I didn't check anything and I would trade a whole harvest in order never to get to that point. And I don't like Weechee's comment, he has been together with a female warrior for a while now and he should know better. There is nothing wrong with being a girl. Right?"

"Right. There's something wrong with being me in particular, would be the same if I were male."

"Well, I'm glad we came to something that makes sense. They, including Wicket, feel somewhat threatened by you, as they got over the fact that you would never be into any of them long ago. From the moment you accidentally rode that…err…uh…"

"You mean…the space bird?"

"Chak, chak, from the moment you accidentally rode that space bird, it's become clear that you're a valid competitor for all the accolades usually received by warriors. We all have those situations when we come out of age, though nobody ever praises os for that…the thing with the space thing…that was pretty much your coming out of age. I can see that you changed for the better within the past couple of moons, as in…since then."

"Paploo is praising me", she thought to herself and repeated the sentence a couple of times, imitating all of her other friend's voices. It did not make sense, regardless of the voice. Those two things were never supposed to be in the same sentence!

Snow was starting to fall again. At first, it was light, but as the night was getting closer, the hunters were roaming through a blizzard. Not even the densest fur and the thickest skin could stand that amount of cold, combined with strong Endorian winds.

"What are we going to do now? Wunka?" asked one of the hunters, "Are we lost?"

"Ridiculous, I know the forest like I know my own hut. Let's continue."

"You're telling us to continue and you're freezing right there. We need to stop."

"A bunch of munyips, you are. We're close to the mountains and there's got to be a cave or two somewhere. We will spend the night there and continue our hunt in the morning. Yub nub!"

While Wunka was not right about anything so far, this time he got something right. After a couple more small hills, there was a mountain and they were standing in front of a large cave. Weechee got inside, carrying a lantern. There was no sign of anybody living there, or an animal inhabiting it, only piles of hay in the corners.

"All clear, we can spend the night here."

They got inside and dragged some rocks to make a sitting area and a fire pit. Luckily, the wind was not blowing towards the cave, and they used some large branches to cover the opening.

Wicket was digging through a pile of hay, hoping that it was deep enough to hide the embarrassing birthday gifts on the bottom, so nobody would search his bag and find them while they're in the cave. He felt something cold underneath, but it was not smooth enough to be a rock. He reached for it and, to his disgust, pulled out a stiff korrina cub. There were no signs of injury or freezing on its body and it did not reek of anything, either. Nevertheless, an attempt to bring it back to life by shaking it, was unsuccessful. The cub was dead and Wicket was doing his best to keep the tears from rolling down; remembering the winter when he played with Asha's korrina cubs.

"Look!" he got in the middle of the sitting area and raised the cub by its leg, "It's dead."

"We can see that." said the same hunter who was worried about the cold earlier, "Maybe it was stillborn."

Latara stepped out.

"It's not that small, it definitely lived for a moon or two before dying. And it does not look as if it was slayed."

"Throw it outside, it's too small to use for anything, it's not even worth a strap." responded the hunter.

"You think I said that because I wanted to make something out of it? That's…uh…"

"Well, what did you come with us for? You cannot wrestle large game, it is very likely that you cannot shoot a poison dart or throw an axe, either."

"Hmmm, we'll see about that." the girl Ewok smirked.

Wicket coughed, in yet another attempt to be taken seriously. Wunka, who was peeling a large egg, did not even look his way, until Paploo nudged him.

"So, ummm, young Wicket, you found a dead korrina pup? Do you think it's important?"

"Chak. It has got to be important. As Latara pointed out earlier, while you were busy with your supper, the cub was buried deep in the hay, it does not seem that a larger animal wounded it and it's too large to be a stillborn. Its eyes are open. It must have been running away from something and then it got cornered and that something killed it, in ways that are not known to our people."

"As I said earlier, we may be dealing with dark magic here!" added Romba, but Wunka ignored him as well and leaned towards the youngest Warrick sibling.

"That's a nice story, Wicket, but you have so much to learn. Did it cross your mind that it could have been the Raich? Some moons ago, the elders thought that one was roaming around"

"The Raich does not stun animals to death, it eats animals."

"How can you say that? You have never seen one!"

"I…" started Wicket, but Latara subtly stepped on his foot. Their earlier adventure with the Raich was something they agreed not to mention to others.

"See? You're out of words. Warrior apprentices…they just want to be right, regardless what is going on. If it's not the Raich, it's got to be a natural cause, as nobody really eats korrina puppies. This shouldn't be getting us upset. Everything is under control. We still have enough food for two more days, and then, we can dig for some berries in the snow."

"And uncover some tasty bird droppings instead?" responded Wicket, this time much louder than the first time he confronted Wunka at the beginning of the trip.

"You're being ridiculous again! Didn't I just tell you to grow up?" snapped the party leader and reached out to the youngster, solely to be blocked by the two older Warrick brothers. Wicket, however, pushed them aside and stepped out.

"Wunka, I may be only fourteen snows old, but I am not ridiculous. Your inability to lead this party has got us where we are right now! Your best friend, head elder Kazak, would not want to know that you 'accidentally' attempted corporal punishment on the smallest one in the bunch. We're beyond that, aren't we?"

The expedition leader knew Wicket was trouble, regardless of how useful he was. He knew that the pint-sized adventurist rebels against any authority possible, looks for his own solutions and sometimes succeeds in whatever he was up to. That attitude was somewhat intimidating to him, especially coming from somebody so young. But how was he to sanction it. He called a couple of fellow older hunters aside and after a debate they had near the cave entrance, he clapped his hands and asked the group to listen.

"From this evening on, we'll be implementing a new policy: whoever challenges experienced hunters' decisions gets a verbal warning, since…we're not Duloks to implement corporal punishment. Um, chak, not Duloks…three verbal warnings will result in removal from this expedition and, if the offender is a warrior apprentice, a trophy will be removed from their belts of honour. Once the hunting expedition has returned home, the offender will be reported to the Council of Elders.

Wicket sighed. His heart was telling him to rebel against this and leave the expedition himself. Wunka was blackmailing him, there were no other warrior apprentices in the group and his belt of honour was a running joke to many ever since the day he had received it. To make things even worse, wind outside was howling like never before and it would not have been possible to survive without the hunters.

"I will never, mark my words, ever, be a part of anything with this Ewok again!" mumbled Widdle, assuring his younger brother that he was not alone in his opinion. Weechee nodded and gave Wicket a pat on the back.

"Leave me alone. Come this morning, you wanted to embarrass me in front of everybody; I don't need your defense! I'm no longer a child!"

Wicket retreated to the opposite corner of the cave, where Latara and Paploo were unpacking their blankets. Widdle and Weechee looked on and then, the former glutton walked over to his younger brother and offered him a hand. Wicket did not turn around. Widdle shrugged and decided to remain there, slightly worried about what was to happen next.

As everybody was getting ready to sleep, Romba, who tossed some more wood onto the pit to keep them all warm through the night, broke the silence.

"I just remembered something…not sure if it's relevant but…"

"But what?" yelled Wunka.

"That shaman was a she."

"And that's why you had to scare me? Why does it matter? Just let sleep."

Minutes later, everybody was snoring loudly. Almost everybody. Latara, cursing herself for taking a part in an all-male expedition, was trying to stuff the ends of her blanket into her ears, in a desperate attempt to fall asleep She could not help but rewind the events of the day – her argument with Wicket and the unexpected compliments from Paploo. For somebody like hrt, filtering out flattering from actual compliments was hard. She was raised on a steady diet of flattering, coming from everybody but her father. Initially, she did not appreciate them much, as she desperately wanted feedback for her art, and not her looks. As the childhood was fading into adolescence, the later had more and more significance to her. Things other than showing off slowly became trivial to her. And now, Paploo out of all Ewoks complimented her on something she never thought she could be complimented for before. He also said that there was nothing wrong with being a girl – the same thing that seemed to bother Wicket earlier that day, when he delivered a clumsy and hurtful defense of his privileges. There they were, in Kneesaa's words both "guy-guys", treating her differently, based on the exact same thing – her assertiveness.

At the same time, she was wondering what Teebo was up to at home. What was the thing that he wanted to toss to her that morning? Knowing him, he wrote something, likely a poem for her. And that was nothing special, as everything he'd ever read out loud to her before was about nature, and all those things nobody sees that he kept on babbling about so often. No! Perhaps all that teasing has finally proven to be fruitful and the poem was naughty? Maybe he will want to see the Light Spirit with her after she's returned? She would've so wanted to see the Light Spirit with such an attractive girl, if she was male! Not to mention what the other guys would think about that!

Then, out of nowhere, she slapped herself upside her face. There was she, thinking of how wonderful she was, what others should like about her and how she should be a trophy, a rite of passage to a misfit. And it all seemed disgusting, like never before. In a choir of highly annoying snores, as opposed to total silence so many elders would consider to be cathartic, she figured it out, at last – life was not about pleasing the others and masking insecurity with personal insults. Beauty was not a status symbol and it was solely in the eye of the beholder. And girls were not trinkets to put on one's hood.  
It was the right time to snap out of it. Right here, in the wilderness, away from the family, the best friend and the one she wanted to be with. She slowly got up and looked at her shadow on the wall of the cave. She still liked what she was seeing, but it was the high time to like and accept what existed beyond that shadow.

But wait? Since when did she have…horns? Latara gasped, turned around and saw the Ewok behind her making shadow puppets above her head.

"Willy!"

"Haha, scared yet?"

"Very funny. Why are you up?"

"Don't tell my brother, " he whispered, "but sometimes, I still need a snack in the middle of the night. Would you like to join me? I will feel less guilty."

"Only if whatever you give me doesn't make me all tipsy again."

They both laughed and went to the front of the cave to grab something from the supply bag.


	9. Chapter 9

Asha was patrolling her side of the forest when the blizzard caught her unprepared. The snow shoes and her fur cape were not enough to fight the tremendous cold and wind and, as heavy clouds completely hid the Sistermoon from view, she was forced to rely on her sense of smell to get by.

Luckily, she knew the area more than anybody else; and she remembered an expedition from long ago, where she hid a bunch of pregnant koyt females in am a tunnel below the roots of a particularly old tree next to a pile of large rocks. The strong odour of the years of koyt males' territorial marking led her to a welcome shelter. As expected, there was no sign of any koyts visiting in the past week or so. To her relief, there were no carcasses, either.

The tunnel seemed longer than Asha could remember. And the ceiling was getting higher. She touched the ground and realised she was walking on rock and not soil. She reached to the sides of the tunnel and there was nothing to her left. And there was some light coming from underneath. It did not take her longer to determine that the tunnel was on a gallery above a cave.

In the dim lights of the cave below, a familiar, rough voice was speaking, following a shadow on the wall's rapid movement. It did not take her long to recognise the belligerent growls and somewhat muscled body of King Gorneesh, the leader of a local Dulok tribe, the one who once nicknamed her Red Ghost. The shadow next to him was hard to make out, as well as the tone of the voice.

"Your master promised us their territory. He would better not fail us, the way many others did before him! We don't even want the Sunstar this time, we just want to enslave them and take over their village!"

"Nothing to worry about, Dulok. As my Master's plan carries on, they will be left with no protection, whatsoever!"

"It's not just your master's plan, if I may..."

Asha was sure that the third voice belonged to Umwak, the Dulok con-artist, posing as their shaman.

"SILENCE!" yelled Gorneesh, as his shadow was violently hunching towards Umwak's. Then he turned towards the stranger again, "Do continue, and don't mind our shaman!"

"My Master wants Logray. It's an old feud he needs to settle. And, yes, the Sunstar will come in handy and we know where the Ewoks keep it. You Duloks can have your revenge. United, you will outnumber their warriors. The youngest ones are following the trail and the traces we left, to another trap!"

The red-furred warrior's heart was beating in her throat, for the first time ever since she witnessed the Hanadak attack her mother and sister. This was something she never encountered before - a planned assault on her home.

"I want Chirpa! Eye for eye...and more." Gorneesh waved his spiked club in the air.

"He poked your eye out? I thought you had acciden..." Umwak was about to correct his king again, but a shorter shadow standing next to him kicked him subtly in the shin.

"Uncle Umwak..."

The mysterious companion of the Duloks continued.

"I also left them a little bait, so they would be driven as far from home as possible."

"Now, how about the one who killed my father?" another shadow whom Asha assumed to be younger Dulok with a prominent large ring on his nose jumped into the discussion.

"His name is Warok, at least so my scouts said. You can have him, Kaalwar!"

"And I sure will. Nothing else could make me cooperate with YOUR fraction, Gorneesh...nothing else but my thirst for revenge! I am sure there are some woklings we can skin alive and eat this time!"

Umwak's shadow turned around towards the smaller one and put a hand on its mouth. Gorneesh was avoiding the answer. After the tribe broke upon former king's Vulgarr death, his fraction, which remained in the swamp close to Happy Grove, was dedicated to exploiting the Ewoks - not eating them. Woklings would be useful as slaves, from the moment they were capable of speech and independent movement. If nothing else, they could protect his three younger children and other Dulok bratlings, as a live shield. Ewoks' food supplies were sure tastier than Ewoks themselves.

"While we don't agree on the matter of taste, I am sure we will meet halfway. Just let me have my way with Chirpa before anything else!"

Asha bit her tongue, as her upbringing in the wild was urging her to snarl. The sole thought of somebody hurting her father was frightening, but, at the same time, it was something she would battle against until her very last breath.

"I will be heading to their dwellings. Your warriors should wait for my sign."

Asha decided that she had heard enough. She sneaked out, determined to get to Bright Tree Village, regardless of the weather and warn her sister and the Elders. She had no idea when her father was to come back for his trip, but she had to be there before him and Logray as well.

As she was getting out, a green-furred head peeked out from the cave below. She closed her eyes and held her breath. The green head disappeared. Had she looked back, she would have seen Umwak's shadow approach Gorneesh's once again.

"Sir, I heard something on the gallery above! Pretty sure I saw a pair of eyes in the dark as well!"

"Umwak, how many times will you try to get our new ally's attention?"

"But, sir..."

"I know you want Logray's magic items and potions as much as I want to humiliate Chirpa, and as much as Kaalwar seeks revenge for Ulgo! I am well-aware of that, but I don't understand why you're behaving like a bratling in front of a large cauldron of glock! Be patient!"

Umwak sighed. While his wacky plans cost the tribe many losses, he was getting tired of his king's constant humiliation. Most of his ideas were presented as Gorneesh's, none of the trophies from previous raids were in his possession and back in their youth, it was only Gorneesh's strength that made Urgah choose him.

At the same time, the thought of owning anything from Logray's hut was tempting...so tempting that he forgot about what he saw in the dark.

Meanwhile, at the Bright Tree Village, Chukha-Trok gave up on finding anything about the animal exodus from the stand-ins and he decided to spend the evening with his relatives, as he did not go back home with a blizzard starting.

Relieved that they didn't have to deal with yet another angry Ewok anymore and happy that the head elder Kazak most likely went to sleep as soon as the sun went down; Kneesaa and Teebo returned to the royal hut. To their relief, the woklings were sleeping, piled up nowhere other than on the great chief's bed. The princess smiled, covered them with her father's spare robe and went on to prepare something to eat. The shaman's apprentice offered help, but she declined, so he sat at the table and poured the contents of his satchel on it. There was no use, no matter how many times he would look for it, the piece of parchment he didn't manage to throw to his love interest that morning wasn't there, and he was sure that Wiley ate it. He starred at his old stone knife, a jar of pigment used for writing, a couple of other stained pieces of parchment, a thin wooden brush with animal hair tied on its top and a couple of tiny sacks of remedies for common bugs. And no matter how much he looked at it, the note was not to appear among all the other things.

"What are we going to do about the woklings? They need to eat one more time, too."

Kneesaa, who was bringing what looked like a berry, milk and egg foam dessert to the table, shook her head and smiled.

"This is for us, Teebo! For you and me. We deserve it after such a hard day. I kept it in snow behind the hut, so there still may be chunks in it."

"And the little ones?" he asked, as he was slurping his helping of the dessert.

"They'll have the rest of the stew, as I'm not letting them get away with it. I will leave it near fire, so we'll feed them whenever they're up. I guess that, with them sleeping, we avoided another horrendous feeding session or another occasion where they stuff themselves with sweets and need stomach medicine in the middle of the night…"

"Thank you! That thing with Malani some days ago was so stressful, especially after…you know."

"Oh, chak…now I have you here and I bribed you with something you like, so you have to tell me more. Just kidding, we have to talk about that night, seriously. I cannot help you before I've heard your version of the story...I only know Latara's and she tends to exaggerate, as you know."

Teebo looked terrified.

"No, she didn't exaggerate THAT much. She said that she was saying things she wouldn't say when sober, but that you went ahead and started kissing her. I think that must've caught her by surprise, not that I'd expect her to admit it. And then something got lost in the conversation and she got angry and left. Is there anything she didn't tell me?"

"That's all there is. I didn't realise she was tipsy, I didn't figure out what she was talking about, which is ridiculous, as I helped my master deliver a couple of times. I know how...life...works. Why hurry it? We can live for 200 and more snows…"

"I agree. If I kissed somebody, I would prefer to…"

"Wait, it's not what you think it is. I don't have an issue with morals, I go by my own, I just need the connection I have with the colours and the stars in love as well. Also...ugh..."

"What is it?"

"Since I brought it up, I guess I will try and explain...you know that a part of me is not really here, walking on these boards, and that part of me can see the future…and since the futures multiply all the time, it overwhelms me so easily."

Kneesaa was confused, but she was trying her best to understand. Teebo stopped her in the middle on one of her usual speeches on morals, family values and maturity, and it was not what she expected.

"Do any of those futures include you and Latara together? Or is there something else in them that bothers you?"

"I do" Teebo pulled a strange, uncomfortable face, as if what he was about to say was physically painful, "In the brightest burning among those futures, I see waves of passion and they somehow settle into a still sea of lifelong love…but there is one particular future where they're preceded by enormous pain and this brief...nothing."

"Nothing? How can you see nothing?"

"It's a...knot. A knot that's completely black and near-motionless. At the end of that future, something else confuses me, too - I see Latara watching the sunset with somebody, but that Ewok is somewhat tougher, mean-looking, has dark stripped fur and carries that small horn your dad said he would give away to whoever proves to be worth it. In other words, my love is not with me."

"Do you think that you..?"

"Die? Chak. And she finds happiness with that...stud, probably capable of giving her everything she wants...and she doesn't mourn me the slightest. What I gather from such a vision is that I deserve to die in that future, perhaps I succumb to the evil ways...like Morag or Zarrak. In that case, it would even be reasonable for somebody else to kill me."

She put her arm over his shoulder. He took her hand.

"Forgive me if I'm saying anything I shouldn't, I don't have the nature powers like you, but I know this much: to succumb to the ways of the Night Spirit, one needs to be...completely different from you. I've never seen you do anything unkind."

"Hmmm, I was pretty silly when younger."

"Who wasn't? Look at your sister! She would trade you in at Moot the Trader's if that would mean she gets to go out boating with Wicket!"

"Wicket...hmm."

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"There is something in the way you say his name."

The princess' palm was getting warm and she nervously pulled her hand back. Teebo giggled and took it back in his hand. She turned her head away and pulled the top of her hood towards her face.

"T'hesh, Teebo...it does not sound any different than saying anybody else's name!"

"No, there is something and there's always been. You can hide your eyes underneath that hood, but you cannot hide the truth. You are very, very fond of him! And he does not see it, or does not want to see it!"

The princess sighed, pushed her hood back up and leaned onto her friend.

"Chak. And that is why I'm patiently waiting for the day he'll be old enough to figure it out and approach it in a way that won't break me to pieces, burn me to crisp..."

"Kneesaa, he cannot be completely oblivious to love, he's perfectly aware that my little sister is into him...but that is safe ground, no problems involved, a kiss from an innocent child is a self-esteem remedy..."

"...while a kiss from a young woman would drag him into making decisions. And he is not good with that. He is not good at listening others either, just like Latara. For a while, she thought that playing that silly hard to get game will get you to be a bit bolder. I told her that you would not make a move, even during all that time you were pretty open about your feelings."

"...and then I did. To me, it's like giving in to the dark powers of the Shadowstone. Temptation is not a good thing for a shaman. And you and I, Kneesaa, we have been cursed with loving those who are louder, prone to trouble and, at the same time, less responsible than we are."

"But that's why we love them, I guess? Because somebody like you and me needs the burning fire of somebody like Latara or Wicket."

"Wait, this never crossed my mind. What if they're outright fighting out there?"

"With this kind of weather outside and the dangers of hunting in deep forest? Even if they did, I think they're all right now. Don't worry, Teebo."

It was getting too late and the two friends knew that the next day could be even harder, depending on what Kazak had in store for them. Kneesaa picked Winda and Leeni from the pile and took them to the upstairs chamber with her. She then proceeded to move Nippet and Wiley to Asha's bed. Teebo stretched, yawned and lied next to his little sister. Malani opened one eye, turned around, hugged him and whispered.

"I love you so much!"

"Malani, I'm not Wicket, you're dreaming again" he responded.

"I know…lurdo-brother. You're the best…"

Whatever was going on these days, it had sure extended to everybody, he thought, as he was falling asleep.

Lights were slowly going out around the village. At the Warricks' hut, Deej and Shodu were going through their sons' keepsakes, which they would never want them to do otherwise, claiming they no longer had one single bit of childhood in them. Elsewhere, Warok and Batcheela were sitting by the fire pit, holding each other and sharing a large mug of warm herbal brew, spruced with some of the notorious fermented berry drink.

On the other side of the main square, Lumat and Zephee were in a completely different mood. The old carpenter was arguing with his wife. He tossed a candle she had just precast and yelled at her.

"Once again, you allowed Latara to take a part in WHAT?"

"A hunting party. She has gone hunting. I fully supported her decision, as whatever has been going on recently seems to be eating her."

Unfortunately, Lumat never approached his children with understanding, nor did he pay attention to whatever was bothering them. In his mind, his adolescent daughter needed strict discipline in order to turn out how he thought she was supposed to.

"Nonsense! A girl in a hunting party. OUR girl!" he slammed his fist against the table and then he remembered something, "If nothing else, at least she's not with Warok's lurdo of a son. I don't want them to get too close."

"You mean Teebo? He's really polite and kind. His little sister is a bit of a troublemaker, you know that she often gets our woklings in trouble…but he's nice."

"He's not nice. He's male, young and probably willing. Such ones can never be nice. If I ever catch him with his dirty paws on our daughter…"

"…I'll tell him to go ahead and take her away, as being under the roof of this hut is not good for anybody." Zephee thought to herself. From all her conversations with Batcheela, Shodu and the other Ewok women, she was sure all the husbands were nicer than hers and there were moments when she was hoping that her daughter would have the kind of an adventure Batcheela had at that age, the one they all gasped about in public, yet giggled at their basket-weaving contests, when nobody else was around.

With those thoughts, she decided to leave to the sleeping chamber. Everything was squeaky clean.

"Zephee!"

"What is it again?" at this moment, she was losing her patience and the more her husband was yelling, the more she understood her daughter.

"My knife. It's gone. She took it with her!"


	10. Chapter 10

Early next morning, snow stopped and the view cleared. Tana was, once again, clearly visible in the sky. This, however, did not mean much to Asha, as she was starting to get frostbite on her fingers and toes. Was she on the right track, after having spent most of the night on top of a tree, as far as possible from the hidden cave where she almost fell into the hands of Duloks and their mysterious ally? Her sense of smell never betrayed her, but never before did she have to wonder the forest without any of her trusted animals or other warriors nearby.

"I m-must do this. For my family! For my village!" she tried to encourage herself, blowing into her hands. Had this been somebody else, their lives would have been in danger by now; but she knew a thing or two about keeping warm. And one thing she learnt from years of living in obscurity was that talking to herself would help her keep her mind off the cold.

"Calm down. Calm down. You cannot give up right now. By the time the last trace of the night is gone, you will be home and you will get to warn your village. You will make sure that your father is well-protected and that a group of most experienced warriors is guarding master Logray's hut. Once Logray and Teebo are in the same place again, they could attempt and reverse the curse, as this has got to be a curse. It cannot be anything else! Hmmmm…?!"

Something was moving below the snow drift about fifty steps ahead of her. She took a large, crummy branch in her hand, barely managing to hold it as she couldn't properly bend her fingers, and carefully walked towards it. As the struggle was getting more and more intense, she realised it was not snow drift. With each single movement inside of it, a small pile of snow would fall off, eventually revealing a large thorn bush. Something was grunting, panting and squeaking inside of it. And then, pulling the bush off its roots and hurling it towards Asha, it set itself free.

Asha managed to duck the bush and ran forward, assuming a weak animal was in need of her help; but after one more glance at it, she ran for her life instead. Emerging from the remaining bushes was a rabid gurreck and it was heading towards her, letting out a threatening groan. Its eyes seemed almost crystal-like, golden yellow and not blinking at all. Asha ran towards the nearest tree and, at the last moment, she grabbed her grappling hook and tossed it at the nearest thick branch. With a single battle cry, she swung away in the nick of time; as the gurreck started tearing through her cape. A piece of fur and leather remained stuck at the root of its right horn.

Asha's heart was still beating fast; but she was no longer feeling cold. As a matter of a fact, she was sure that she could feel every single hair on her body stand up and blood flowing towards her finger and toetips, which were on the verge of going numb minutes earlier.

The animal, tilting its head to left and right, as if it were under some kind of a controlling spell, turned around from the tree. Then it hit another tree. And another. And another At some point, its horns got stuck in the bark.

As the gurreck was struggling to set itself feel once again, Asha decided not to take any risks and swing from one tree to another instead, all the way home. This near-death-experience made her even more determined. As she was tossing her grappling hook towards the next tree, she realised that this was the first animal she had seen alive in days.

…

"Good morning!" Kneesaa was standing above the royal bed and observing the two siblings with fair forelocks on top of their heads slowly coming back to Endor from wherever they have been in their sleep, "And it seems that everybody's slept well, too!"

"Chak, we're improving as babysitters." Teebo replied, in between stretching and putting his head on.

"I'd say you are improving as an older brother as well. Malani, did you sleep well?"

"I did and now I'm hungry. Is there any more of that stew from last night? Yours is better than my mom's. Please? Can I have it?"

Kneesaa subtly nudged Teebo. Her plan to feed woklings some leftovers was easier than either of them would hope for. Nippet and Wiley were eager to munch on bits of vegetables and sausage as well; while the other two little ones opted to sleep a bit more instead. Eventually, Shodu Warrick came by to pick up Winda, Teebo took his sister to their parents and Kneesaa dropped Leeni off and then headed to Zephee and Lumat's home. She was secretly hoping that they could have had some time to spend together, with Latara and the woklings away; but instead of that, when she knocked on the cob wall of the hut, Zephee peeked out, looking as if she hadn't even blinked for the past day.

"Mama!" exclaimed Nippet, but Kneesaa was not letting her and her little brother's hands go just yet. The sight of the kind wife and mother's red eyeballs and beeswax dotting both her hood and her fur was unnerving at best.

"What's wrong, Zephee? I never saw you like this before."

"You did, child. You were just too young to understand it." Latara's mother replied and then nervously turned around.

Kneesaa was confused. Was this a moment where her father would have used his authority to find out what has happened, or would he just leave it, assuming that everything is all right? Zephee was clearly hiding something.

"Kneesaa? Would you please do me a favour and tell your friend Teebo that I said hello and that I hope he's all right?"

"Sure, but…"

"I would love to talk more and let you have a cup of herbal brew with me, but I need to prepare breakfast for these two rascals the two of you took such good care of."

"We fed them before we…"

The princess could not finish the sentence. Zephee finally picked Nippet and Wiley up and disappeared back under the curtain. She took a couple of steps backwards; then turned around and headed to the Council Hut. It took some time until Teebo appeared, bringing a task list from Kazak, who was so practical to leave it with Warok and Batcheela.

"This is ridiculous. 'Sit there all day and come up with answers to this questionnaire'. Really, Kazak, you want to know what I would do if my fur was falling off? Or if I had to hide my traces in order to do something secretly?"

"Just look at mine. He asks me if I would ever kill and if my mother would be more proud of me, my older sister or both. What is the purpose of this? I am telling my father. I don't care if that makes me less credible; whiny…this is in no way related to gaining experience and learning to be more responsible."

"At least my, Wicket's and Latara's parents spent some quality time on their own…"

"Wait, I have not told you the most important thing. Zephee was in a very, very strange state when I dropped by. I'm worried…"

While Kneesaa and Teebo were discussing Latara's family up in the treetops; a hunched female Ewok approached the entrance to the village. She looked like a cross of mistress Kaink and master Logray, as she was wearing a long, tattered robe, had some facial fur bordering on a short beard and seemed to be more than two hundred snows old.

"Stop right here!" exclaimed Gwig, a very young Ewok on lookout duty, "Who are you and what do you want?"

"Sweet child, please, have mercy on poor Gunlaag! Can your people give an old woman shelter and food?"

Gwig thought for a bit. He wasn't sure what to do. The warriors who recruited him for lookout duty told him what to do if a Gorax comes to attack the village, what signal to toot from his little horn if Gorneesh's tribe is up to no good, but nobody ever instructed him on frail old women.

"Sure, why not? But I would have to talk to somebody about it. Come; let's climb up to the village. You shouldn't be walking around the forest when it's this cold!"

"You're a good boy! May the Great Tree bless your soul!"

The stranger followed Gwig to the platforms in the treetops. He took her to the Council Hut, hoping to see Kazak there, even though he was scared of the head elder, just like most children of his age. He was somewhat relieved when, instead of the cranky head elder, he encountered two familiar faces, one of whom he recognized as the older brother of the girl he liked ever since they both received their hoods at the Festival of Hoods some snows ago. Caught up in their conversation, they were not paying any attention to him and the stranger he brought along.

"With all that you told me, I'm worried about her. I should go after her. Lumat can be unpredictable!"

"No, you cannot do that. The village without a shaman, even an intermediate one like you, would not be a safe place. We can only hope that we will notice the hunters before he does, once they have returned home!"

"I guess you're right. And, come to think of it, I am glad that Zephee is on her daughter's side, too. But whatever he may be doing to her is awful. My dad was never like this..."

"She also told me to extend her greetings to you. Not sure why."

Gwig came to the big meeting table. At first, he coughed. But the two stand-ins were not paying attention. He nervously looked around and grabbed the old woman's hand.

"So, Gunlaag, we're having a bit of a mess right now, as Kazak, our head elder, seems not to have arrived yet after last night's argument with the hunters who have now parted and our chief and shaman are not here. These would be our heiress to the throne and our shaman's apprentice."

"So…go ahead and introduce me to them, young one?"

"Goopa?!" Gwig raised the tone of his voice and banged head elder Kazak's wooden hammer. The two finally turned around to him and Gunlaag.

"For how long have you been here?" gasped Kneesaa, "I'm sorry we didn't notice you."

"This old lady is cold, she's been through last night's blizzard and it seems that something horrible happened to her, too. I need to go back to my lookout duty, so…please…"

"No worries, we will do something about her." the princess ensured Gwig, "Just do me a favour and go to Bozzie's on your way back to your post. She will make sure this poor soul gets everything she needs. Tell her that I sent you."

Gwig swallowed a lump. He managed to avoid Kazak, but he was to deal with the other older Ewok he was afraid of. Such were the downsides of a young boy's scout training. He grinned at Kneesaa and Teebo and ran out, nearly falling over his own feet.

"Pleased to meet you, Gunlaag! I'm princess Kneesaa A Jaari Kintaka. What has happened to you?"

Gunlaag was puzzled by Kneesaa's hospitality, as this was something she did not expect. The other, male Ewok, awkwardly tall and seemingly absent-minded, was not coming to introduce himself at all.

"Kneesaa…thank you…I am blessing the trees for giving me strength and I am not sure how I made it out alive. I have been wondering around all night, my home has been attacked by a villainous group of Duloks and there was a slaughter, bloody beyond anything my eyes have ever seen!"

The other Ewok nearly fell off the stump he was sitting on.

"King Vulgarr's tribe!" he said, his voice shaking, but Gunlaag continued, not paying attention to his remark.

"Everything burned to crisp and nobody was spared. I am so frail and my days are numbered, so…they left me for dead and moved on, towards the desert."

"What do Duloks have to do with the desert? They stick to humid terrains, such as swamps and bogs!" Teebo asked again. At that moment, Bozzie, Batcheela and Shodu appeared at the hut door, carrying a large wooden bath tub, a new hood and a blanket.

"Shaggy boy, get out of here." commanded Bozzie, "We are going to bathe her and warm her up and she may find your presence unnerving. Go to your master's hut and bring back whatever you can think of to help her make it."

"But…I said…and…I have a name…and…ummm…err…"

"Now!" she repeated and escorted Teebo out of the hut. "And hurry up, we haven't got all day!"

The three women disrobed the stranger and gave her a bath, as carefully as they could, as she was unusually thin and cold. She would moan each time Shodu would scrub harder.

"I am sorry! Once our shaman apprentice is back, he can check if any of your bones are broken."

As the women were taking care of Gunlaag, Kneesaa stood at the door. She was trying to make some sense out of what just happened.


	11. Chapter 11

Hunting party members were waking up, one by one. The outlook seemed less bleak with sunshine coming through the conifer trees, so they were slightly more hopeful than they were the night before. With the snowstorm over, if nothing else, search was to be far easier.

Wicket was still sleeping peacefully, holding onto the bizarre toy from his backpack. The noise around him, everybody getting ready and donning their hoods, Latara cackling at Widdle's jokes…none of it seemed to bother him. Once the pit was lit again, he turned around and hurled his blanket, giggling in his sleep. This got the attention of two younger hunters, who came closer and observed him, trying their hardest not to laugh.

"Is that a toy?"

"Chak! I cannot tell what it is supposed to represent, but a toy, nevertheless."

"How old is he again?"

"Fourteen snows, I was at his birthday party. That's also where the girl acted a bit strangely. She literally threw herself at me at some point. Ha! The future worn-out bordok cart in the making!"

"So, that is why she is in this party? I don't know which one of them is worse, but at least she is pretty…and a tart. Tarts are fun. Young boys aren't. Unlike her, he has something that prevents him from being fun - a little beetroot down there somewhere after all - so there is no excuse to keep him, no excuse of any kind, and m..."

The hunter stopped talking as he noticed that the golden-yellow eyes were angrily staring back at him. "I heard everything. I heard every single thing you two miserable lurdos just said and you make me sick!" Wicket got up and threw himself at the nearest offender, hitting him everywhere he could, roaring in his typical hot-headed fashion.

"K'vark! Take him off me, he's gone completely mad!" the surprised hunter, his hood already torn, was trying to reach for his club. But another hand was already on it.

"Greetings from the tart!" the husky female voice was the last thing he heard before he felt something hit him on the back of the head. And then he blacked out.

A little later, Wunka was sitting on one side, with Paploo holding Latara and Weechee Warrick holding a bare-headed Wicket, on the other. The injured warrior was lying down, with another holding a block of ice against the back of his head.

"So, what do we have here? A warrior apprentice, known troublemaker, attacked one of his experienced peers, then a hoodmaker apprentice clubbed him. Nho-Apakk, is Chubbray coming round?"

The light-grey Ewok nodded. "Chak, he'll be fine. She hit him pretty hard, but he's strong."

"Girls, they're so emotional sometimes! They're unhinged…" Chubray was coming round.

"Eat worms and die." Wicket yelled as loud as he could, prompting Latara to grin, "Perhaps she should hit you again and use your skull as a war trophy, so you stop talking like this! I am out of this stupid expedition. Of course we have not found food yet, because you're an incompetent bunch of lurdos!"

Weechee has never seen Wicket like this. He turned to Wunka, hoping for at least some understanding, but the party leader was not keen on letting the youngster go.

"This is it. You are out. We had our doubts about your maturity, but now you have crossed every single leather rope placed in front of you. Once this food crisis has come to an end, the Council of Elders will have a special hearing for you and you will most likely be stripped off your Belt of Honour."

"Speaking of 'stripped', can I at least pick my hood before I leave?"

As Weechee let his younger brother go and get his clothes and the backpack, Paploo crossed the path of the party leader, letting Latara go. "We need to talk."

"I don't have the time; we have to continue the expedition." Wunka said, looking at Wicket get out of the cave.

"You cannot say no to the carrier of the Great Horn of the Sistermoon. It's only second to the Sacred Horn of the Soul Trees."

The party leader swallowed a lump. Nevertheless, he let Paploo walk him back to the stone he was standing on minutes earlier.

"Wunka, you are pathetic. Wicket had already made the decision to leave on his own and whatever you may yell at him now just shows that you wanted this to happen all along. I am not sure if you have a problem with just him, or the Warricks in general."

"That's a lie, Paploo. And you know it. He had to pass through a steady dose of hazing and he was not taking it well. His brothers, back in the days, knew what a harmless joke was and, as you can see, I respect them."

"Harmless joke? I am guilty of many such harmless jokes, but I am not as delusional as you and I admit to poking fun at others every now and then. The main difference between you and me is that I do not do this when my tribe is in the danger of a food shortage! I am going to have a word with my cousin about this. She and her…father will be informed of my point of view regarding what you and your peers did to Wicket before they even get to hear your useless whining."

The injured Ewok spoke again "That's right, everybody's best friend and the future holy mother of every single villager…she's going to punish us! She breathes, eats, drinks and lives punishment! Just like this friend of hers breathes, eats, drinks and lives…something else."

Latara looked towards the Ewok she clubbed, hoping not to see despise on his face. He winked at her. She knew it was the time she made her decision.

"I am out of this nonsense hunt, too! The next time you need a leather worker, or, as you say, 'tart', you're perfectly free to strip some skin out of your own…beetroots, since they appear to be some sort of mountains piercing the outer space. Right? Goopa, guys."

Widdle raised his hand to say something, but seeing his brother sit down, with his elbows on his knees, he changed his mind. As Latara was getting out, following Wicket, Paploo muttered a couple of k'varks and picked his things as well.

"You'll have to continue your search for food without me. And since you already know what I am to do…good luck."

"Great, now she made one of our best young warriors follow her. Is he her boyfriend or something?"

"I knew women were causing problems. Why did I allow this? Why?"

A couple of hundred steps away from the cave, still trying to set his hood right under the weight of his backpack, Wicket turned around and saw Paploo and Latara running towards him clumsily, as fast as they could in their snowshoes.

"We are not going to let you walk home alone. It's too dangerous and all you have is that spear."

Wicket's face lit up. "Did the two of you…stand up for me? Did you abandon the hunt for me?"

"One could say so." Paploo nudged his friend, "And you did stand up for Latara beforehand, which was the last thing expected after the two of you tried to kill each other yesterday."

"They probably think I have two boyfriends right now. What a pathetic bunch. That said, this has been a great experience, until that lurdo called me a tart. You know…I am not afraid of anything right now." Latara hugged her friends and giggled, "Chubbray is lucky that I didn't reach for my weapon, instead of his club!"

"What do you mean?"

Latara opened her backpack and pulled out a large, crooked knife. "I call it 'Berry'…hehe!" she winked and caressed the blade with her nimble fingers, "I've had my eye on it for years, ever since I had seen dad use it for the first time, the night he came back home with a particularly large fish. If anybody tries to hurt me or my friends, they're going to get some Berry."

Wicket and Paploo were speechless.

"Who are you and what have you done to Latara?"

"What is Lumat going to think about this?"

"He doesn't know. He probably didn't even notice that I took Berry with me. All he's thinking about right now is how Teebo is a threat to my chastity. He's still stuck in the times long before the Ewok-Dulok wars. Chastity...isn't the life ironic? He thinks I'm an angel, these lurdos called me a tart. Can't beat them…"

Despite his remark from earlier, Paploo was sure that this was the Latara he knew, taking a new step towards adulthood, "And you know who you are and you don't care about what others say. Right?" She nodded and they both smiled.

Wicket smiled at first as well, but then he frowned. "I am worried about my reputation. What if this really ends up with losing my Belt of honour…again?"

"You and your reputation. You and your dumb belt. Relax. Paploo and I will stick up for you! I am sure Kneesaa and Teebo will, too. Let's go home!"

…

Gunlaag was now sitting at the table in Warok and Batcheela's hut, stuffing her mouth with food. Shodu and Bozzie were grilling some sausages and brewing vegetable stew, while the head of the family was eating with the guest, making sure she doesn't choke or pass out from exhaustion.

"So, you are Warok? I heard of you! You are quite a legend among all the Ewoks on Endor!" Gunlaag mumbled with her mouth full of food, "You saved your children from king Vulgarr, didn't you?"

The humble guard smiled. "I am not sure how that story got to your village, but it gets blown out of proportion. I could not have made it without our brave warriors and I could not have made it without my son, who solved the mystery behind his sister's disappearance!"

The old woman took a mouthful of sunberry juice and swallowed it, then sighed, "I see that your daughter is alive and well," she smiled to the little girl in a blue hood who was bringing the next dish to the table, "But what happened to that son of yours? Is he with the hunters?"

Having heard this, Batcheela, who was standing behind them, dropped a plate full of boiled grains with dried fruit. She grinned, muttered that she's clumsy and got on her knees to clean the mess, assuring Malani that she did not need any help. Warok shrugged and continued the discussion.

"No, my son is not aspiring to be a warrior. The Light Spirit and the Father Tree have blessed him with knowledge far broader than the one of an average Ewok. He can speak the languages of Phlogs, Firefolk and many others; and his powers are very strong with the forest creatures. He is studying to be a shaman; he is the student of master Logray! We are very proud of him, my wife and I!"

Gunlaag raised her eyebrow, "So, he is the one who hasn't said a single word to me when I was brought here earlier? The graceful princess came to my rescue, but your son did not seem interested, until he had a chance to jump at my words and contradict me!"

"I will talk to him about it." Warok took a large helping of what his wife managed to save from the dessert, "He worries too much about everything, from watching the stars to dealing with girls."

"Yubnub, that's sweet. Does he have a girlfriend?"

"No, he doesn't." Teebo interrupted the conversation, "Dad, you're doing that again. Shodu? Bozzie?" The two turned around from the fire pit, "I brought you the clay pots and bottles you asked for. I also prepared the healing elixir, as well as the warming shadowroot butter for this woman's frostbite. I can treat her injuries once she's done with her meal.

Gunlaag put her hands on her face "Young man, I couldn't possibly allow you to touch me!"

"I help Logray deliver, heal and check for illnesses; we don't have a dedicated healer."

"Logray would be a whole different story. How old are you?"

"Turning eighteen snows old in less than three moons. I know I look younger, but chak..." Tebo turned his head, "Why?"

"You have to respect my wishes. In my village; it's unacceptable that a young unmarried male treats a woman, from the age she starts counting her moons, up to her very last day. I want mistress Bozzie to help me instead. Thanks for taking your time to prepare these remedies, now you're free to go and perhaps hang out with your little girlfriend."

Teebo shook his head and left the bottle of elixir and the small wooden box on the table. "Bozzie, I hope you can get this done by yourself, sorry for the trouble. Shodu, those sausages look nice, can I have one?"

"Of course. Since you haven't had any at Wicket's party, this is a good chance to tell me if you like the way your mother and I seasoned them. That said; where is your mother?"

"I'll go find her."

Carrying his plate, Teebo went to the chamber where his parents usually slept. Batcheela was sitting in the large two-people hammock and having her lunch in silence. He took a hay-stuffed pillow and sat down next to her.

"These sausages are great, mom! You and Shodu should cook together more often. I love your take on Dulok glock, too, it was a good idea I talked about it after we had saved that Phlog baby some snows ago. Right?"

Batcheela just gave him a blank stare, as if something in the chamber smelled bad. Always hungry, he took a couple of bites from his plate and then looked at her again. She was not eating at all; she was just moving food from one side of the plate to another and soaking a piece of bread in the stew.

"Dulok glock. Duloks. Bloody Duloks! Do you remember that I almost lost you sister to a group of Duloks a lot like the ones this woman described earlier today? You told me about their leader, who held you in the air and told your father that they were to take you home in two baskets. Two baskets. And this was after he tried to behead your sister! Those are not Gorneesh's Duloks!"

How could he not remember the blade being held against his little wokling legs? "Mom, I said that earlier today. And…"

"And then she asks your father about the hunters. Right, Teebo? I don't like her. May the Father Tree forgive me, but I don't like her and I wish there had been a way to test her. Not sure how, but she is not to be trusted."

The young shaman was surprised. "D-Did you swap bodies with the head elder Kazak or something? You just said 'test' and that is what he's been doing to Kneesaa and me for the past couple of days. We didn't even get to talk about this, mom. This is the first time I am talking to you since my master left with chief Chirpa!"

She was used to her son saying the most unusual things from the moment the scruffy wokling first spoke in her arms, clinging to her chest fur; but she was not in the mood for jokes this time.

"This is not funny, Teebo. Think about it. You are smart. I am sure you will come to the same conclusion as me. I cannot tell Shodu and Bozzie about my doubts, but I can tell you, because I trust you not to have the 'silly women' view your father has or that 'she wants to be different' approach common to most Ewok women." Batcheela patted her son's forelock.

"I am going to the observatory. I need to clear my head. I'll nibble on a blade of grass, watch the sunset and then read the stars for the night. Perhaps this time I will get an answer."


	12. Chapter 12

Master Logray and Chief Chirpa were ready to leave the Tulgah camp on the shores of the moon's largest sea. As their hosts were taming a couple of beasts of burden for them to ride northwards to the snow-covered grove; the leader of the tribe was walking in the sand, observing his friend who wanted to collect some shells to study and compare to those in the other seas. A shell after shell was finding its way to his hands and then his pouch.

"I have been looking for one of these for a long time!"

"I miss my daughters, Logray. These several days felt like a year to me." he leaned over to pick a pebble and throw it in the water, "I cannot even begin to imagine the pressure Kazak put on Kneesaa and I wonder if I should have done something to prevent him from harassing her while I am away. I knew I should have asked my sister to keep an eye on the Council of Elders."

Logray shook his head as he sat on a rock. "I would not do that. Your sister can be incredibly naïve sometimes. She would have become one of Kazak's pawns, and would have taken pride in it." The shaman was speaking soto voce as he drew circles in the sand. "You cannot see that in her because she is your sister, but it is very, very easy to manipulate her."

This came as a surprise to Chirpa. He had never heard Logray criticise Bozzie before.

"You are never this blunt. Is something wrong?"

There was no response. His teeth stiff and eyes closed, Logray was speaking the language of magic. He crumbled a large ball of wet sand between his palms, and stuck a pebble into the pile of sand that formed in front of him. His barely audible chants were getting louder and louder, eventually turning into screaming at the sun, as he was kicking the waves with his bare feet.

Finally, he stopped and sat down again, removing dust from his robe.

"Arandee…this may seem intangible, unreachable to you. I taught you to speak the language of the Firefolk. I told you where I keep my most important relics and scrolls in case something happened to me…but I am afraid you won't be able to comprehend this, as I could have not taught you magic, for one simple reason – you were not blessed with the nature powers."

"Give it a try. Please. I insist."

"You walk with both of your feet on the ground, my friend. You don't hear colours, you don't see the future and you have fought your way to where you are now. Unlike you, I was led through life by magic. The magic can speak to selected few. Those selected few can communicate through its waves. Sometimes, this is helpful. Sometimes, this is dangerous. An inexperienced being able to feel the waves of magic could unconsciously leave his or her mind open to a dark wizard."

"Is this how Morag knew you would come to Mount Thunderstone, on the day of her demise?"

"No. I was able to learn how to close my mind to Morag when I was a prisoner in her lair; but before our latest confrontation, she infiltrated the mind of my young apprentice. She could probably sense he had natural powers long ago, but until that point, when I took him in, he was insignificant to her master plan."

Chirpa was completely lost. "What are you trying to tell me?"

"Morag is dead, Zarrak is dead; but there are more dark shamans and witches roaming around the woods, plains and mountains of our world. I am almost sure that two of them, a master and an apprentice, are on their way to corrupt Endor, perhaps even destroy it. They're of the same breed as the witch who goes by the name of Charal. As you know, their ways are powerful. They are not living for the trees and they are capable of ruining everything they come across."

Logray kneeled and looked at the horizon, where the celestial body was meeting the sea. Chirpa, still not sure what his friend meant by what he said, looked in the same direction. The sun seemed to be drowning in violent waves, each topped by rabid sea foam.

"I can see the waves going in the wrong direction! Is…is the end near?"

Logray opened his eyes and smiled. "I just demonstrated how these powerful users of magic may be functioning – through deception. I spoke softly, I created an illusion, I managed to convince you of something impossible. Look at your feet. They are wet. Of course the waves will always be heading to the shore, not towards the sun. Nothing can drown the sun until it decides to drown itself."

"I thought the sun will explode when a gigantic Gorax manages to captured it. And then everything will be dead. Now you're saying that those furless, long-limbed creatures will be the death of us. Are they here, now?"

"They are not. Their arrival depends on things going on right now, over…there! Somewhere where it's colder than at home, somewhere where there is no ground beneath your feet and – ultimately – somewhere where no rules exist!"

Logray pointed to the sky, in a direction that did not make any sense to Chirpa.

"I don't understand anything. If it's not them, then whom are you afraid of? Is our village in danger?"

The shaman was not listening, as his eyes were closed again and he was holding his hands up to the sky. Chirpa shrugged and went to observe the Tulgah beastmaster putting a saddle on the best.

Miles and miles away, back at the village, Teebo was sitting at the observatory, examining the dusky sky through the telescope. He had a hard time trying to draw what he had seen. None of the scrolls in the archive were even close to what he was observing.

And then, just as he was about to determine if an object he had not seen before was moving, he heard his master's voice, as if it was echoing inside of his own head. That seemed impossible. He dropped the parchment and got in the observatory hut with a lantern in his hand. Nobody was there. The voice was indeed coming from inside. He sat down on the platform and covered his face with his hat, then stuck his fists into his ears. Only then was he able to make out his master's words.

"Young Teebo, listen to me. Something is going on right now. I cannot see what you can from where I am. Tell me what the stars are saying."

"Gorax King's Heart seems unusually bright tonight. Maybe he wants to go out and revenge us, set the whole Endor on fire. Wondering if this is what is causing me to feel strange. Not sure if I am hungry, but there is this feeling inside that…"

"Let it go! Try to think of something that has nothing to do with what you just observed. You are more vulnerable than you may be aware of."

"Vulnerable? What to?"

"Please, just sit there and wait for me. I expect to be home by morning."

"I can see a fire in the distance, but it's not a forest fire. It looks like…torches. What if the Duloks are on a rampage?"

"Whatever it may be, do not worry about it. Just sit where you are and wait. And, most importantly, think of something else. I know you have a thing going on with Lumat's daughter, think about that. Think about the games you used to play with Wicket five, ten snows ago. Just do not think about the stars and the distant fire right now."

The voice disappeared. Teebo got up and looked at the pulsating star once again. Unsure of what to do, he rushed down the stairs to his master's hut. He removed one of Logray's ceremonial masks to reveal a hole in the thatched wall, and quickly slid something into his satchel. Minutes later, he ran to his family's home and sneaked into his and Malani's chamber through the window. He was hoping not to be seen, but his little sister was sitting on the wooden floor, playing with her straw doll.

"Goopa, big brother! Are you doing any magic tonight?"

"Chak", Teebo mumbled, as he was pulling a large scarf out of his storage chest.

"Is it fun?"

"Malani, I have no time right now. I have to go…somewhere!"

She shrugged and then reached underneath the bib of her hood, pulling out a piece of parchment. "I have to give you back your p..." But Teebo wasn't listening. He didn't even look her way. At some point, she thought she saw a familiar yellow and periwinkle stone flash from his satchel, the same artefact she once stole and got away with it.

"Not now, Malani. I have to run!"

"What do I tell mom and dad? Are you going to be back for supper?"

There was no response. Malani shrugged and continued playing. Her brother was now off to the communal bordok stable, looking for a young and strong mare to ride. As he was clumsily trying to put a saddle on what seemed to be the strongest of the bunch, somebody laughed behind him. Chukha-Trok was snacking on a meat shank at the stable entrance.

"Where do you think you're going, wondering boy poet?"

"Great d-danger lies ahead of us and …and…."

"And you think you are big enough to handle it?" the woodsman stepped out of the shadow.

"Big enough? Sure, I may…I may not be as burly as you, but I think I can handle it!"

"You are so funny. Chak, you are up to my eyes now. You have sprouted like there's no tomorrow. That does not mean you're old enough for a task like this. You need to be big on the inside as well."

Teebo snapped, "I don't like it when you talk that way, Chukha! Don't you think you humiliated me enough yesterday?"

The woodcutter did not respond. To Teebo's surprise, he removed his axe, together with the strap and placed it over his shoulders.

"You're going to need this. Do you know how to use it?"

Teebo shook his head, still confused so as to what had just happened.

"When in danger, swing the axe. If the enemy is near you, you can strike with the axe in your hand,"Chukha demonstrated the manoeuvre by boxing against his own shadow on the stable wall. "If not, you can toss the axe, but you have to be precise. This can be a matter of life and death. Good luck."

"I don't want to kill."

"You already got rid of Zarrak and helped your master get rid of Morag. And you might have to do it again, in a non-magical manner. Even I know the code your kind goes by – one must rely on himself first and magic second. Isn't that what Logray taught you?"

Teebo nodded. As he mounted the bordok and disappeared into the night, Chukha-Trok stood there by himself for a little while. He was not sure if he had been away too long, or if the young ones were more complicated than ever. Fifteen snows ago, everybody was so simple.

With these thoughts, the burly Ewok was slowly making his way back to the main square. At some point, he stopped, having heard something. He turned was a shadow behind him, or so he thought.

"Halt!"

There was nobody else on the platform, but there were some footsteps in the snow on the boards. Chukha-Trok rushed to the space between two nearby huts. Nothing to the left. Nothing to the right. Just as he was about to give up, he felt another Ewok's breath. He pulled the stranger by the hood and put them on his shoulder. They were struggling and squeaking, but he closed their mouth. Once in pale moonlight of the open square again, he managed to catch a breath again.

"Whoever you are, I am taking you to the princess of the Bright Tree Village!"

"No, you are not!" the intruder was angry and their voice seemed familiar, "You cannot take me to myself. This isn't funny, Chukha. Let me go!"

He was terrified. The short white Ewok on his back was Kneesaa.

"What…what do you think you were doing?"

"I am sorry, my princess; I thought it was somebody else! I saw a pair of yellow eyes in the dark and…"

"And mine are blue. Great catch. You ruined it!"

The woodcutter was puzzled. "I ruined…what?"

"I was waiting for somebody to come out. And then I was going to follow them. Nobody was supposed to know about it; as I have my doubts."

Chukha-Trok was giving her a blank stare, "This is too much for me. First your melodramatic awkward friend, now you…when are you woklings going to be simple, for once?"

Kneesaa was trying to think of an appropriate response and ignore the word 'woklings' while at it, when somebody patted her on the shoulder.

"You again?"

Gwig was pulling her hand "'scuse me for the lack of formalities. Come with me! Both of you! It's urgent!"

Kneesaa and Chukha-Trok followed the young scout down the slippery stairway to the forest floor. A red-furred Ewok was waiting there, looking battered, exhausted, with some thorns in her fur.

"Asha! You are alive and well!"

She just nodded and then collapsed.

Chukha-Trok carried Asha to the royal hut and helped Kneesaa tuck her, then he went out, still embarrassed over what happened earlier. Confused, Gwig tried to added a couple of branches to the fire pit, but he ended up tripping over the whole pile of wood instead. The princess turned to him. He first grinned and then his face quickly grew solemn. It took him a while to form a coherent sentence. This was too much for a single day of lookout duty.

"Is she all right?" he grinned again, but this time the grin almost turned into a spasm.

"There's a tear on her cape, but other than that, I think she's just exhausted." Kneesaa hugged Asha, who seemed to be coming round, then continued rubbing her feet. "Why don't you go to Logray's hut and tell Teebo to come here!"

The young Ewok dashed once again, but came back within a minute.

"He's gone, my princess."

"Maybe he is at the observatory, then. Let's not disturb him. Bring me Batcheela, Shodu and Bozzie! I know they are taking care of poor Gunlaag, but this is urgent!"


	13. Chapter 13

"This does not look like our grove!"

Latara picked a fern leaf peeking from the snow and sniffed it, as if it was supposed to smell different when closer to home. The three outcasts had been trying to find their way back to the Bright Tree Village for a while and the only thing they had determined was so far was that they had no idea where they were. Underneath so much snow, every single grove and every single meadow looked pretty much the same.

Wicket frowned and tossed a snowball at the nearby tree. "My warrior instinct has failed me. Either that, or there is no such a thing and I should have listened to Kneesaa each time she would call me out on that."

"And I should have learnt to follow shadows, instead of claiming that I know everything, which I don't."

"How can you follow shadows with the clouds hiding the sun?"

Paploo shrugged and was about to say something more, but Latara interrupted the conversation.

"Boys, there will be plenty of time for redemption. We need to get home and tell our parents about Wunka's arrogance. If I was to list everything I need to be forgiven for, right here and right now, we would starve by the time I was done."

Minutes later, Wicket was climbing the tree; taking a moment to blow into his little hands after every couple of branches. Once on top, he was to determine if they were anywhere near home. He remembered complaining about his arms being too short to climb trees, and those memories were contradicting his more recent brags about climbing being a boring skill that everybody was good at, either way. None of that made sense anymore, as he was struggling to reach each and every branch. It looked so simple in his mind, yet so hard when put to practice.

After what seemed like an eternity, he was on the top of the tree. Everything in sight seemed more or less the same: snow-covered treetops below, the sky far above. The red disk was close to disappearing from the view, a pale white one was visible far up, as well as a large pinkish one; the rest being stars, something that never interested him. He never knew how to read them or how to use them to find the way. He never cared about them.

This time, something caught his eye. One particular star looked strange, as if it was larger than the others. It seemed familiar from somewhere and he could vaguely remember the campfire story about the Guiding star of the Trees Long Gone. Wicket looked to where the star seemed to be pointing to and noticed smoke raising high above the forest.

"Yubnub, I think I know the where we are and how to get home!" He grabbed a vine and slid down the tree.

As his two friends approached him with hopeful looks in their eyes, he continued, "A miracle happened! An unusually bright star just lit my way and I saw fire over there. It's got to be the Guiding star! We're saved! We will be home in the time for supper and then, in the morning, we will complain to the Elders about Wunka and his lurdos!"

Latara was somewhat suspicious.

"I never thought I would hear the word 'miracle' coming out of your mouth. You never believed in anything, the only guide you ever had was, well, your own reflection; and then, out of nowhere, the Guiding star?"

"That's right, I am not a personal friend of every single living creature like, say, your boyfriend, but this time I'm right and I know it!"

"He is not my boyfriend!" Latara was quick to protest.

Wicket snickered and made the babbling mouth sign with his fingers "And I am not a warrior apprentice with a shiny belt of honour, ha! What was I trying to say... we are all tired, hungry and we cannot wait to tuck our feet in own blankets near the pit at home. So, let's go!"

Half an hour later, there were no bright lights from treetops in sight, as Paploo, Wicket and Latara wandered into a grove with the treetops so dense that they seemed to be closing up the sky and hiding all the stars. Despite this, it was not dark. On the contrary, a large and bright fire was burning in the middle of a field cleared of snow, surrounded by three circles of strangely placed, colourful pebbles.

The colour of the fire was like nothing the three Ewoks had seen before. Instead of bright reds, oranges and yellows, there were violets and dark blues and an occasional iridescent spark. On top of it, the fire was fragrant. The wind was bringing the sweet, almost fruity fumes their way. And, no matter how hard they looked, they could not spot any wood in the pit.

"Doesn't look like home." Paploo turned to Wicket, who seemed disappointed, "And I don't like this fire. How do we know if there are no Duloks or Yuzzums nearby? It could be a trap!"

"It's cold for either to be out in the forest. They have got to be hiding in their swamps and burrows!" Wicket was quick to dismiss his friend's suspicions, "Maybe this fire is coming from deep below the surface and going over some crystals that give it this colour."

Wicket's assumptions were not making much sense, but tired and hungry, his friends did not feel like questioning him anymore.

"If nothing else, we will be able to warm up a bit...and hopefully, camp on one of these trees. There are holes in the trunk of that one over there!" Latara pointed to a wide, crooked tree on the other side of the fire, "We should not be taking the shortest way to it, though…I do not want to get any closer to this…"

She stopped mid-sentence. Her two friends were walking straight to the fire. Paploo seemed enchanted and reaching towards the blue sparks arms up in the air, inhaling the fumes with his mouth wide open, as if he had not expressed his dislike for the fire upon arrival. Wicket, however, seemed to be interested in something else. He kneeled down and reached towards the outermost circle of pebbles.

"I am going to take one of these for my belt of honour. If I am to take a stand against a lurdo who did not stand up against everybody bullying me, I need a proof that I am a hero after all!"

As he picked the pebble up, the ground started shaking. Paploo, who was by now trying to embrace the fire, tumbled backwards, giggling.

"The trees are melting. The soil will melt, too! I love this!"

"Wicket, Paploo, get out of there!" Latara was waving her hands, as the underground movement kicked her against the nearest tree. She reached for her father's knife and stabbed through the bark. Hanging by one hand on the trunk, she watched her backpack sink in a hole that opened just below the roots of the tree. She was trying not to breathe the fumes, having realised that they were causing Paploo's strange behaviour; but the thick smoke coming from the middle of the field was making her eyes itch, to the point where it felt like something was eating her from the inside.

Close to the woodless pit, Wicket was trying not to get burnt, as the fire was sweeping to the left and right. As a flame came dangerously close to his hood, he dropped down and grabbed the hand of his intoxicated friend, who was now moving his arms and legs as if he was swimming in place.

"The trees are melting and the sky is exploding in so many pretty colours. You don't know how to do this, you cannot handle this…lie down, float with me and enjoy the sight! Let's bathe in sweet dreams!"

"What has gotten into you, Paploo?" Wicket screamed, "We have to get out of here, this place is cursed! Cursed!"

It was too late. The ground started crumbling under the weight of their bodies and backpacks. Still hanging by the tree, as her two friends disappeared below the surface, Latara bit her free hand. Her heart was beating so fast that she could feel it in her throat. At the same time, she was trying to remain as calm as she could, in order to remain unseen.

Once the fire was stable and upright again, she pulled the knife out of the trunk and jumped down.

"Thank you, Berry!" she whispered and caressed the handle of her weapon. Whatever seemed to have lured Wicket and Paploo into its underground lair seemed not to be aware of her presence. Nevertheless, her instinct was telling her to run. And run she did, leaving traces of her tiny feet in the snow, as the interspersed treetops seemed to be closing behind her.

Once she could see the stars and the Sistermoon above, she stopped to catch her breath. At this point, her thoughts were coming and going like tidal waves in the middle of a large storm. What had just happened? Were her friends still alive? If Wicket saw this fire, could it have been visible from the observatory, too? Did it have anything to do with that star? What kind of a creature could have possibly caused a groundquake and could the animals have been forced underground as well? And, most importantly, was she far away from home?

Latara's thinking was cut short, as she felt warm air, and breathing sounds behind her. The next thing she knew, she was face to face with a gurreck. The animal seemed possessed, with foam coming out of its maw and a piece of spotted fur cape stuck to one of its horns. She pulled the knife out again, but the animal grunted and kicked her to the ground with its front hooves, causing her to drop it. She managed to reach for it and grab it in the last moment, narrowly escaping a stab through the middle of her palm.

With her next move, the knife remained stuck in the flesh, right above one of the beast's hooves. The gurreck roared and pranced, then attacked again. Latara rolled around in the snow. And again. And again. Running out of breath, she tried to get up and run, but she only managed to trip over a root and fall, this time with her face in the snow. In a flash, she remembered the mandatory survival training and tried to be as still as she possibly could. The predator was first breathing down her neck and back, and then it seemed to have turned around. Not feeling its breath anymore, she turned around. It seemed to be going away.

Latara got up and reached for her necklace in the snow, when the gurreck heard her move and ran towards her again, her knife still stuck in its leg. She screamed on the top of her lungs and jumped on its back, trying to strangle it, solely to be dropped down.

Just when she thought she was going to be kicked and stabbed to death, an axe swung through the air and hit the gurreck straight in the neck, not getting a single hair off her fur. The warm red liquid started sprinkling from its vessels. The animal fell over Latara, who had no strength to roll over again. The last thing she could see was somebody getting out of the shadow and running towards the corpse.

"I…I killed it. I cannot believe it. I killed an animal! It was controlled by the Night spirit, but…I killed it."

As Latara came round, she could feel a gentle hand rub clean snow against her forehead, removing the gurreck's blood from her face, as the other hand was holding her head up and putting her necklace back on. She opened her eyes and smiled broadly.

"What…are…you…doing…here?"

"It's a long story."

"Tell me more…actually…just hold me until I've calmed down first!" she whispered, burying her head in Teebo's chest, as he hugged her tightly.


	14. Chapter 14

The clouds covered the Sistermoon, Tana and the stars were only peeking through the dense fog. In the darkness of secluded space under a thick woven curtain, a pair of hands spun the crystal image spinner on the large wooden table engraved with the same symbol as the curtains, some of the bottles and pots on the shelves and pretty much every other thing in the hut.

At first, there were no results and the top-like artefact just tumbled on one of its sides. After a couple of "k'varks" and a handful more spins, a hooded figure in dim light was slowly becoming visible in the orange glass. Due to the number of abnormalities on the creature's face barely visible underneath the hood, they looked like a nightmare; but the late-night dweller who summoned them grinned and greeted them.

"Sorry for the interruption, my master. I had to hide again."

"As long as you are finally making yourself heard…" the hooded figure's red eye flashed, "Do you have the Sunstar?"

"That I do, my master. However, I don't have Logray."

The hooded figure's sharp teeth were clearly visible in the spinner, as they snarled at whoever was spinning the crystal. "You fool!" Don't tell me you're afraid to take on him?"

"I am not!" the minion protested, "He is not here. Once he is, he will meet his demise. Nearly everybody else who can be considered dangerous is scattered around the nearby groves."

"Did you get rid of the Red Ghost that the Duloks spoke about? Was she capable of magic?"

"I am sure she was stabbed to death by my gurreck. And no, to my knowledge, she had no magic powers to speak of - she was more of an animal than an Ewok, so that's where her knowledge of animals came from. Night spirit forbid if she ever actually learned to use the outhut when her naïve little sister brought her back from the wilderness."

The hooded figure stopped for a bit before conveying their response. They never knew why their apprentice possessed such hatred for her own specimen, but as long as they could use it to their advantage, it was useful to listen to her ramble on every now and then.

"Strange. I was almost sure she was the other user of magic…Logray's apprentice. My vision clearly looked like a female Ewok. How could I have been wrong?"

The minion snickered. "Logray did recruit somebody after Zarrak, my master; but it's a he. You are not far away from the truth, though; I did not expect a shaman to still have the face of a wokling at what I understand was some seventeen snows of age…" she pulled a grimace to give her best impression of a 'not really there' expression, "You know what that means – he is not corrupted at all, otherwise his anger would've started consuming him by now."

"Are you avoiding telling me what I really want to know? Is he capable of magic or is he yet another con interested in remedies and potions?"

"From what I understood, he played a key role in Morag's death. And he got rid of Zarrak by directing a bunch of flying leaves at him." She almost did not like the sound of her own confession. "Another thing I learned is that he is directly responsible for the demise of king Vulgarr of the former united Dulok tribe. He is the son of that infamous Warok; he is the one who almost sacrificed himself to save his younger sister."

The hooded figure raised the voice, which was now raspy and full of anger.

"Do king Patrash and warlord Kaalwar know about him? They should not. I assume you plan to converge with them one more time before they attack the village and that, when the time comes, you will release the other beasts to eat Gorneesh and his excuse for an army alive."

"I took the liberty to modify your plan, master, in order to kill two munyips with one stone. I sent Gorneesh's warriors to find the Ewok hunters, while he and his henchman are with our preferred Dulok fraction; so we could get rid of them during the battle and make it look like the Ewoks did it. You know how much Gorneesh wanted Chirpa? It was impossible to get him to do what I wanted, so this is a compromise…"

"Hmmm…I like that. While you're getting rid of the Bright Tree Village's powerful ones…"

"…both the Ewok hunters and the incompetent Dulok warriors will meet their demise together under the hooves and on the horns of my beasts. Once Patrash and Kaalwar's faction has slaughtered Chirpa's family and Warok, who is responsible for their father's deaths and I got rid of Logray, the remaining Ewok warriors may as well surrender to me…I mean, you. Then Patrash can have his long-desired wokling feast. If he gets his hands on Warok's daughter like his father planned to back in the days, she will serve as a warning to others."

The hooded figure contemplated on the idea for a while and then spoke again.

"Your plan is glorious, but mine is even better. That wokling-faced shaman apprentice still puzzles me…I want him. I will make sure he willingly comes here. Meanwhile, Patrash's warriors will keep you safe until Logray arrives, then you can lead him to our lair somehow. By then, I will have his apprentice become a servant of the Night Spirit and he will slaughter his own master! He will be our to-go assassin, so we don't have to get our hands dirty anymore."

The minion was suspicious and somewhat offended.

"Master, I thought I was to finish Logray! I've been waiting for so long!"

"You can use as many of his tools of trade to become more powerful, and as many of his bones as you please to adorn yourself. After all, you will be the new shaman of the Bright Tree Village. Now, doesn't that seem tempting, mistress Gunlaag?" the hooded master paused for a bit and then continued, "Wouldn't you love to wield Logray's spine as your authority staff? Wouldn't you like to adorn your new hood with his teeth? Now, lead Patrash and Kaalwar to their sweet revenge; and Gorneesh to his demise…and take good care of the Sunstar."

Gunlaag nodded her head, as the reflection of her master faded in the crystal image spinner. Then she covered it and put it aside, angrily spitting on the symbol on the table. She was strong enough in magic to realise she has been betrayed and that her master just changed his plans. A personal assassin? That did not sound like her master's tactics. From what she knew of him, he never had more than one minion by his side and the idea of a young and able-bodied apprentice would have seemed more appealing to her if she had her master's powers as well. Whatever he just made up on spot was nothing but a trap to get rid of her in favour of the clumsy Ewok she met earlier that day and who was, as far as she knew, at the observatory.

But the banished shaman of the former Mountain Springs village was smarter than that. After all, she never intended to give her master the real Sunstar, but a painted stone from the Yarlubb river. Something that belonged to Logray, the shaman who destroyed her life, or so she claimed, was precisely what she wanted to use to destroy him.

Sixty snows ago, she led a young warrior and his bride-to-be to death, after they observed her tame and control her blood-thirsty animals in a cave. The Council of elders expelled her, thanks to a visiting shaman from another village who uncovered her plot and erased her from the songs of remembrance, her name never to be spoken of again. Days later, she came back with a herd of beasts and only a handful of her former tribesmen escaped being stabbed and ran over. They scattered, holding on to dear life and never came back to Mountain Springs.

Ever since that day, Gunlaag had been trying to find the one who saw through her. In the meantime, she was travelling from one village to another, offering her services as a fortune teller; with her faithful beasts lingering nearby in case she needed to dispose of an enemy. It was only through her former allies, Morag the Tulgah witch and a fellow bitter Ewok shaman in exile, Zarrak that she found out about Logray; and it was only through her new master that she found out Morag and Zarrak died on the course of the past two snows.

And now, when she was so close to her revenge that she could almost taste it, everything got more complicated and her unexpected ally was ready to ditch her for somebody who never killed out of sheer pleasure.

"How could the master be so unthankful?" she thought to herself, "I let him know locations of all Ewok villages on Endor, I retrieved all of Morag and Zarrak's magical objects and now he wants to get rid of me…"

Her stream of thought was cut short, as she heard somebody approach the hut. She made her way out through the window, then towards the main square, as the small platform did not provide enough space for her to hide. The nearest two huts were close to each other, and she hid in the storage space in between.

Moments later, she noticed a pair of eyes stare at her. She held her breath and curled up, trying not to move, as the other Ewok was sniffing the air. Did somebody see through her already? Was a skilled warrior she had no knowledge of following her?

And then, unexpectedly, somebody else, a much larger Ewok than any she had encountered throughout the day, grabbed the one spying on her. She heard them argue and she was hoping they would not come back and find her. Once they rushed down the main stairway, she breathed a sigh of relief, stepped into the light again and looked around, not knowing which way to take, until she spotted the only stairs leading further up.

"If the young lurdo is still observing the stars, perhaps I can…"

Holding the Sunstar in hopes for an eventual battle, she arrived to observatory. A telescope was still in its place, as well as a stump with a cushion on it. Inside of the hut itself, she spotted two mugs containing what appeared to be young cheese, one of which had a noticeable crimson-red mark in shape of lips.

"K'vark! The moment I discover your weakness, you are already gone!" Gunlaag crashed one of the mugs against the wooden fence. She was about to break the other as well, when she noticed fire rising from a distance, above the dense treetops covered in heavy snow.

"By the Night spirit! The master has already set the trap! If the wokling is the scroll-worm I perceived him to be, he's got to know of the oldest dark spell ever recorded!"

How was she to deal with betrayal?

The only thing coming to her mind was presenting herself as the victim to Logray and figuring out if there was a way to manipulate him into what she felt would have been a fair battle.

And that was precisely what she set off to do. Until then, she had to go back to the bed she was given, so nobody would suspect her.

…

Asha was sitting in a warm bath tub, with her younger sister by her side. She came round, but she was badly bruised and each single of her limbs was aching. If nothing else, there was no frostbite on her fingers and toes.

"What a strange story. First Duloks plotting with that stranger, then the only animal to appear in days is out to get you?" Kneesaa was observing the torn fur cape, "I don't know much about gurrecks, but this is the first time I heard of them attacking somebody like that. And it attacked you, out of all forest dwellers. It makes no sense."

"The animal was under somebody's control. I don't even know how to describe its eyes; they did not give me the impression of a creature that was really there. Gurrecks are dangerous, but they do not chase their prey like that."

The princess crumbled some more fragrant clay-like substance in her sister's bathwater.

"We gave this to Gunlaag as well; it should soothe your pain…and it smells like rainbow berries, which makes it a real treat."

"Who is Gunlaag?"

"She arrived this morning; she is now resting at aunt Bozzie's hut. A poor, frail old woman…says the Duloks attacked her village and left her for dead, then moved to the desert. Teebo did not trust her, for some reason, but I…"

"Duloks. Assault." Asha jumped out of the bath and reached for her spear, as foam was dripping from her body. Kneesaa was terrified.

"What has got into you? You look…rabid…head to toe rabid!"

And rabid her sister was, grinding her teeth and howling like a korrina. The princess has never seen her like that.

"Gunlaag was the sad excuse for an Ewok whom I overheard talking to Gorneesh's Duloks last night in that cave. The voice, the shadow, the posture, all of them were typical for an Ewok female! Frail old woman…chak, what a pile of steaming droppings! She's got to be the one controlling the animals. She is dangerous beyond belief and we must stop her. Now!"

As Asha was drying herself in a hurry and donning her fur cape again, Kneesaa was able to fill in the missing pieces.

"What a sly creature! She did not want Teebo to heal her because he would have noticed the lack of wounds and bruises, something Bozzie...oh, k'vark. She is not at Bozzie's anymore; it was her eyes that I saw in the dark, between the huts, before Chukha-Trok grabbed me. I hope she did not head straight to..."

"…Master Logray's hut!"


	15. Chapter 15

Wicket came round and opened his eyes, solely to discover that everything around him was dark. He started blindly touching the space around him. For Light Spirit knows which time that day, he silently cursed himself for not having paid attention at the campfire, when the elders were telling stories to young ones. Had he cared about it, he would have known where he was at this moment, and what was to happen next.

Paploo was next to him and he could hear him breathing. Wicket sniffed him first, then himself and eventually the air. There was no smell of blood or pus. Nevertheless, the space they were in was full of uncomfortable, piercing stench, which he quickly attributed to fear of the unknown, in both of them.

"Are you all right?" he whispered to his friend.

There was no coherent response, just barely understandable moans and single words, as Paploo was still coming round. Wicket shrugged and continued exploring the underground space they woke up in, led by his senses of smell and touch. He slowly crawled in each direction, hoping for fresher air, checking if there was solid ground beneath his hands and feet and hoping that there was a way out. After having discovered three dead ends and ending up with a couple of sluggish insects smeared on his palms, he swallowed a lump. There was only one possibility left and if it would lead him to another wall, then they may have been buried alive.

That was not a way he wanted to leave the world, seduced by a bunch of shiny pebbles for his belt of honour, with a barely-conscious Paploo by his side. He never thought about death much, but bearing the last name of Warrick was a descendent of one of the greatest Ewok warriors that ever lived and, if he was to die, he did not want to die without a battle. He did not want to die without a song to remember him by. Most importantly, being young, hopeful and hot-blooded, he did not want to die without accomplishing everything that he once scribbled on a piece of parchment at the Bright Tree Village's swimming hole, the same afternoon when Teebo scribbled his first poem.

"If only Latara was here with us…" Wicket mumbled to himself. "If only she was here to say 'You and your dumb belt' like she did back when we got rid of the wizards of the Night Spirit in the Thorn Forest. This time I would listen to her and admit that I am defeated."

"La…tara? Where?" Paploo's speech was still slurred, as his jaw was half-numb.

"She is not here, but unless she fell in some other hole, I am sure she is alive. The last thing I saw before we fell through the ground was her face, she was holding on to a tree."

"Land…slide…"

"No, this was not a landslide, Paploo. Something or someone wanted us to end up here. The fire that led us to this place was not just a fire. And I would rather meet that someone and bleed to death after they have stabbed me and strangled me, than…eat worms and die."

Wicket bit his tongue. Despite this being one of his favourite expletives, he'd never used it literally... until now. Never before did it sound so serious, as he had said it countless times before – to his brothers, friends, fish that got away, he could even remember that he once uttered it when his little sister relieved herself on one of his drawings. This time, each single word in that sentence carried so much weight, to the point where he felt a lump in his throat.

"Bright lights!"

Paploo's seemingly nonsensical war cry was followed by more incoherent babble. Wicket shrugged and crawled to the only side of their dungeon that he had not explored yet.

He was relieved.

A narrow tunnel was continuing onto the chamber and there were no worms in its solid walls. After a couple steps, Wicket was sure that the air was getting clearer. Couple more and he could see his own hands. A handful more and there was his shadow in front of him. He rushed to the light and made his way out of the dungeon.

He stepped back and then, realising that there was nobody in sight, took a couple of steps forward to observe the underground structure. The chamber he just crawled into was luminous and almost as large as their village. The floor he walked on was cold and covered in a mosaic so large and abstract that he was not sure where to stand in order to observe it completely. Bizarre wooden sculptures of all possible beings of Endor were peeking out of the holes in the walls. Some of them had the very same pebbles that he saw around the large fire in place of their eyes. The middle of the chamber was slightly lower, descending to a black circle, which seemed to be right underneath a hole in its ceiling.

Regardless of how beautiful and mysterious this place was, Wicket had a bad feeling about it.

"These figures and shapes have got to mean something!"

"Whatever they mean, I am glad we are alive. Now we have to figure out how to get out of here."

Wicket turned around. Paploo crawled out of the tunnel, pushing both heavy backpacks before him. He was still somewhat dizzy, but slowly getting back control of his limbs.

"I said that there were bright lights, but you were not listening to me. This place is…interesting."

For a while, they stood still, observing the mosaic and the carvings. Neither of them had anything smart to say and, at this point, they were more scared of making a mistake than ever before. And then, a deep voice that sounded like a combination of gurgling and snarling broke the silence, as a large carving moved out of the way to reveal the only resident of the blindingly bright chamber.

"Welcome to my lair!"

The red-eyed monstrosity that showed up before them was not like any creature they knew. It was taller than the tallest of the Duloks, but still not tall enough to resemble anything larger. More than anything else, it looked like a badly-sewed patchwork of a being, with body parts used instead of pieces of leather and cloth. Oddly enough, those body parts were covered by actual cloak made out of patched pieced of dark fur, leather and cloth; exposing only the dull and almost wood like hands and feet with long fingers and toes.

"I will take that, thank you." the creature said as it extended its long, gnarly arms from underneath the cloak, setting both backpacks on fire. Paploo gasped and ran back to the tunnel, solely to trip over a row of uneven stones in the mosaic. Wicket ran towards him and they both witnessed the tunnel entrance get covered by wood carvings around it. They were trapped.

"You are not going to come any closer, cloakhead!"

The dweller of the bright chamber did not seem to care about Wicket's warnings. Whatever he, she or it was, it came closer and picked the little Ewok by his Belt of Honour.

"And what do we have here…a wokling!"

"I am not a wokling! Let me go! I am a great warrior and this is your last chance! I will…I will…" Wicket yelled, as he threw punches in the air. The creature spun him around, amused by his attempts to break free, as well as his threatening rhetoric. The gnarly fingers poked the dense brown fur a couple of times, provoking the young warrior apprentice to growl at his captor. The growl changed to a barely audible squeak as the creature's dagger-like nails cut through the skin on his left palm. Wicket grinded his teeth and tried his best not to scream as the creature's head approached his hand and, to his horror, smeared some of his blood onto itself.

The red eyes stopped flashing for a moment. "You're not the one I'm looking for. You seem to have some of it in you, but not enough to actually use it."

"Enough of what?" Wicket asked, but the nightmarish hooded figure ignored him and, dragging him over the floor, continued towards Paploo, solely to repeat the same ritual with drawing some blood.

"So, you are not Logray's apprentice and he is not Logray. You are of no use to me, though I might as well keep you..."

The creature's eyes flashed again, as it pointed its hands towards the walls, chanting. Two of the Dulok carvings were suddenly changing colour from dark brown to green, coming alive.

"These unfortunate souls…they had something against my plans, unlike their peers who decided to join me. But they make for good, good servants and delightful decorations." the cloaked menace said as the two parts of his wall of victims, now actual living Duloks with pebble-like eyes, picked Wicket and Paploo and put them in cages suspended from the chamber's ceiling. Wicket immediately grabbed onto the bars and started shaking them.

"You may find that your resistance is futile, my little tree rat."

As the creature put its right hand up, Wicket felt pressure in his throat. "You are a wokling, and a belligerent one, to say the least. I could dispose of you and your plump friend right now, but I need you." The grip on Wicket's neck loosened as the cloaked being continued. "I sense pride in you…therefore, I am pretty sure that you're a brat from an Ewok warrior family, otherwise you would not be this arrogant. Do not grab those bars again! Once your fellow villagers realise that they are dealing with powerful dark magic, they will send Logray's foolish apprentice after you…unless he is faithful enough to crawl into my lair himself!"

At this point, Wicket and Paploo knew that their captor was talking about their best friend.

"Yes, there is an Ewok in your pathetic village good enough to be at my side, and good enough to get rid of his own master, as well as my weary apprentice. I am going to propose something to him..."

"Teebo will never surrender himself to a dark wizard! You are wrong!" Paploo yelled, before the creature threatened him by grabbing his throat for a couple of seconds, like it did to Wicket.

"Silence!" the red eyes flashed, as the gurgling voice became clearer. "So, your little friend has a name. In that case, I am going to propose something to Teebo…something he would be crazy to refuse!" the captor stopped for a while. "No. Make it something he will not be able to refuse. By the time the sun rises, Chirpa and his brats will be slayed, I will be adorned with Logray's bones, my former apprentice will be nothing a cautionary tale and your friend will be guiding those who once wanted to cut him to pieces towards my victory. And now excuse me; I have to talk to my faithful servants, Kaalwar and Patrash."

The hooded being stood in the centre of the chamber and summoned light from the opening above it. As an image spinner made of nothing but pure light formed in the air above, Wicket and Paploo could see the faces of two Dulok warriors, but they were too far away to hear what they were discussing with their captor.

"So, what are we going to do now?"

"All we can do is hope that Latara somehow found her way back to the hunters, or even back home, in one piece. And that Logray and Teebo can sense that this is a trap. "

As he sat down in his cage, Wicket felt something on his shoulders. He stuck his hands underneath his hood, solely to realize that, at some point while climbing the tree, he had put the strange, little backpack on and that the indescribable wooden toy was inside. Out of all the things the creature's ghostly servants could have forgotten to take away from him, he was left with the most useless of them.


	16. Chapter 16

Kneesaa and Asha had almost given up searching Logray's hut. There were no signs of Gunlaag, though the crystal image spinner wrapped in the edge of the curtain of the canopy bed was a clear sign that somebody was there, and so were the foot marks leading to the window, with some snow still scattered on the opening itself.

As her sister was looking around, trying to find a proof that Gunlaag had been there, Kneesaa took the spinner in her hands.

"If only we knew how to use this thing. But if Teebo could not work it out, how can we?" She spun the artefact around the table again, but nothing happened. "Where is he, anyway? Batcheela says he's not at home yet, Gwig did not find him at the observatory…"

Asha was not paying much attention to Kneesaa's loud thinking, as she spotted a hole in the wall, with a mask tilted to the side uncovering it. She looked inside with one eye closed and then put her hand in, but there was nothing.

"Whatever used to be in this hidden place is no longer there! And the one who took it knew what to look for and where; otherwise the whole hut would have been a mess."

Kneesaa shook her head. The only thing that could have been important to the point of everything else remaining in place was the Sunstar. And she saw that gem bring the worst out of those who wanted it at any cost.

"There are only two possibilities - either Gunlaag is going to take it away with her or attack us, or Teebo saw something alarming and went to take care of it himself."

Asha leaned over the table. "Do you know something that I don't know?"

"He had visions of multiple futures. He interpreted one of them as the one where he would die and he was very worried about it. Knowing him, he would sacrifice himself if that meant everybody else is going to survive. He tends to overestimate his abilities." Kneesaa frowned and shook her head.

"So, assuming that he is reasonable and did not do this, we need to find Gunlaag! Didn't Batcheela say that she's sleeping at Bozzie's?"

"Then why did we come here?"

"Calm down, you are not thinking clearly. Of course that we assumed she would be here because this is where she could do most damage! How are you going to run the village someday if you constantly question your own decisions?"

Asha was trying not to be too hard on her delicate younger sibling. In situations like this, her frustration with Kneesaa's naiveté and occasional helplessness was the last thing she wanted to surface. As they were running towards Bozzie and Paploo's hut, she regretted that she had not convinced her sister to stay at home. At the same time, sore muscles and the burning sensation in the soles of her feet were worrying her. What if she was not fit enough for a battle, after such an exhausting and painful day?

The sight of another seemingly empty hut puzzled them.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Kneesaa whispered to Asha, as she raised the lantern in the air.

Once the entrance chamber was illuminated again, nothing looked much different. Kneesaa was still shivering, for reasons Asha could not understand. She shrugged, pulled her sister by the wrist, as they moved towards the central chamber. This space was taller and wider than in most Ewok huts, as this was the place where the Great Chief himself lived before having married. Two lofts were rising above the dining area, which was often the centre of many celebrations in the village, at the times when the Council was not willing to lend their space.

"They could be sleeping. Either that or the danger is closed than we may realise. Give me that lantern, I'm taller."

The whole chamber looked like the site of a battle. A bunch of utensils were scattered across the floor and there was some split milk close to the remains of the fire pit. Half of the large dining table was charred and the other half was turned over. The little stumps reserved for guests were tumbled and, as Asha took another step, one rolled her way, as if somebody had been controlling it.

"I was wrong. The danger is right above us."

The two sisters looked up, as Gunlaag emerged from one of the lofts, welding the Sunstar, right above them. Her eyes were glowing yellow and she was nowhere near weak as she had appeared to be earlier that day – in fact, her body was as muscular as Asha's, despite the age.

"It took you a while to figure me out!"

"What have you done to Bozzie?"

"I am playing a little game of hide-and-seek with her! Since she was so kind to me, I counted to ten before I started looking for her."

"You monster! Using another woman for what? Target practice?" Kneesaa stepped out, irritated, even though she could see the warning glow in the Sunstar. "Gunlaag, drop that! I am sure we can solve this with diplomacy!"

Just as the princess said that, Asha pulled her back. They narrowly escaped a blast from the Sunstar that passed by and reduced Bozzie's favourite chair to ashes within a blink of an eye, the force of the blast causing both sisters to hit the wall. As Kneesaa managed to get up, she noticed that Asha lost consciousness again.

"This is my way of diplomacy, white fur!" Gunlaag laughed.

White fur? The last time Kneesaa heard that was back in Morag's lair, some snows ago. She was now completely sure that Gunlaag was a witch of the Night Spirit and not a random being who heard of the Sunstar powers. And that witch was now aiming the gem at her, manically laughing at her powerlessness.

"What do you want?"

"Surrender yourself to me and bring me the leader or the Council of Elders and nobody will be hurt!"

"Do not listen to her!" wept Bozzie from her hiding place, "She said that somebody called Patrash will execute both of you! A different, bloody faction of Duloks is on its way here!"

"Oh, there you are, the bossy lady who so conveniently stopped the callow buck from uncovering me too early, making this far more fun than it would have been otherwise!"

Gunlaag turned towards the firewood storage chest and noticed a red cloak peeking from it. Kneesaa used the opportunity to jump on the remains of the dining table, toss her grappling hook towards the board holding the loft Gunlaag was standing on and swing to the space below the loft.

Seconds later, another blast shook the entire hut.

Kneesaa was close to screaming. She feared that the intruder might have burned her aunt alive. At the same time, a look at Asha lying unconscious across the chamber was a clear sign that everything was up to her. She never wanted to fight, she believed in words above action, but this time, the responsibility she had was far more serious than anything on Kazak's to-do lists. She swallowed the lump and took a deep breath, somewhat relieved when she heard her aunt panting. Footprints in ashes were leading towards the largest window in the hut. Bozzie had to be hiding under the curtain. She had to react fast, knowing that Gunlaag was right above her and about to fire again.

The beam she was hanging on to looked somewhat rotten. If she had weighed more, she would have been able to swing and pull in order to bring the loft down. Unfortunately, she was as light as an adolescent Ewok could have been. She looked at Asha, then at Bozzie's feet now clearly visible under the curtain. They needed her. The whole village needed her, as somebody had to lead the people in case her father did not come back before the blood-thirsty Duloks attack. At the same time, dying together with her aunt and sister if the whole hut collapsed down and dragging Gunlaag down with them seemed more honourable than being tortured, decapitated or dismembered by Patrash and his savage warriors.

Kneesaa looked at Asha for the third time, hoping for a miracle. Instead of her sister coming round, something else happened: the moment from right before their mother's death under the feet of a hanadak flashed before her eyes, the moment when Asha gave her a tiny gem she had been wearing on her hood since then. There had been so many times when she would have cut herself on it, and master Logray once claimed that it was sharper than a woodcutter's axe.

She didn't have to think much longer. She tore the gem off her hood and started cutting the thick leather ropes holding the loft boards in place over the support beam. She could feel Gunlaag walk right above the place where she was cutting.

"You cannot hide from me, white fur! Neither can you, busty braggart! I don't even have to wait for Patrash to finish the two of you off. If I do so myself and leave the feisty one for Duloks to have their way with, I will have much more respect! And then…" Gunlaag stopped in the middle of her grandiose, threatening speech, as she noticed the curtain was moving. "I see a pair of plump, grey ankles."

"Closer, closer..." the princess thought to herself, "Lean over the balcony, aim at Bozzie…" she was counting Gunlaag's footsteps, nervously looking around the chamber. She could swear she saw Asha blink and move her arm towards her harness, but when she looked closer, the arm appeared to be in the same place as before. It must have been her fear, once again, the fear that she had to ignore, so it wouldn't have gotten the best of her.

"It's time to end this game of hide and seek…for this is the game where I am always the winner!"

"Now!"

What happened next was unimaginable come a day or two earlier. Kneesaa pulled the beam supporting the loft and then swung to the left in the last possible moment, letting go off her grappling hook and landing just an arm length away from the whole structure that was collapsing. Gunlaag fired from the Sunstar towards the curtain, but she lost her balance, aimed upwards and hit the ridge holding the straw roof instead. She fell through the loft boards and the main support beam dropped on her, winding her. Bozzie emerged from her hideout and dashed through the window, screaming. As the bundles of reeds were crumbling from the roof, Asha got up, as if nothing had happened to her, and ran towards her terrified sister, pulling her out of the dining chamber to the safety of Paploo's backroom. As they leaned against the wall and pulled their hoods over the faces, the entire hut filled with dust.

Once they could see again, they walked back in the central chamber, which was now full of broken wooden boards, covered in cobwebs, bird droppings and massive piles of straw. They carefully stepped into the rubble, trying to find Gunlaag and the Sunstar.

Kneesaa was looking at the night sky through the remains of the roof. "Aunt Bozzie will never forgive me this!" She picked a piece of what appeared to be one of the clay sculptures she and her cousin made as children, solely to throw it back.

"T'hesh! She will forgive you everything that you could have done in the past and present and everything you could do in future. You just saved our lives! You're…the greatest warrior among the non-warriors that I have ever seen!"

As Asha stepped forward to hug her sister, a hand grabbed her from the nearby pile of straw and tripped her. The other hand peeked out, holding the Sunstar. But this time, the Red Ghost was not to be fooled. She grabbed the knife out of her harness and started stabbing through the reeds.

"Get it out of her hands! Quick!" she yelled.

Kneesaa jumped and managed to grab the gem. It was still in one piece. Relieved, Asha delivered one final stab through the straw, sending a splash of blood to her own face, upon which she could clearly hear Gunlaag's voice.

"I hate you..."

Her mouth slowly filling with blood and foam, the witch of the Night Spirit was trying to cast a curse, but she was no longer able to. As the daughters of the mighty Chirpa pulled her out of the rubble, Chukha-Trok entered the hut, with Kazak, Deej, Warok and Lumat following him.

"The yellow eyes! It was her at the main square! And to think that I could have caught her before she…wait a moment, did you kill her? By the Father Tree!"

Deej Warrick pushed the simple-minded woodsman out of the way.

"Are the two of you all right? Bozzie woke us all up, but…we had no idea that…that…"

"That we would slay her on our own and save the Sunstar?" Asha smirked, "Kazak, what do you have to say now?"

The head elder was doing his best to pretend he was not surprised.

"There is no time to waste! If those Duloks are really coming our way, we need to tell Chirpa and Logray to hurry up!"

"Are you saying that you don't know what to do in case of an actual battle?" Lumat interrupted him; but Warok stopped both of them.

"I know! She has the same powers my son does…if we placed her next to that …top…in Logray's hut, maybe something would happen!"

"Good thinking! She is still alive enough to get it going. But we have to be quick! To Logray's hut!"

With Gunlaag's hand on its translucent surface, the crystal image spinner spun around until Logray's face appeared in it. Head elder Kazak pushed everybody else out of the way.

"Logray! Please, come back!"

"We are less than a day away from home. What is going on? And how are you using this? Where is my apprentice?"

Kneesaa stepped forward.

"I…I just killed somebody. Or maybe Asha did. Her name is Gunlaag and it's her remaining powers that made this thing spin..."

"Gunlaag?" Logray's calm voice suddenly turned to yelling, "The banished shaman of the Mountain Spring village! K'vark, this is worse than I thought! Was she after the Sunstar?"

"We saved it. But a joint Dulok army is about to attack us and Gunlaag's master, whoever that is, is out to revenge you!"

Gunlaag was coughing faster and faster and her hand on the table was getting stiff. She did not have more than a couple of minutes until her last breath.

"You must not wait for us!" Logray ordered. "Deej, Lumat, I trust you. Wake everybody up. To arms! Also,get Teebo to…"

"We don't know where he is!"

"He took a bordok and went…somewhere! I had forgotten about it…" Chukha-Trok scratched his head, "I gave him my axe, in case he needs it. He claimed that great danger lies ahead!"

Logray was angry. "You should have stopped him. He's not experienced enough to deal with who I think is behind Gunlaag! Warok, you are the only one who can glide in this awful weather! Tonight is the only night of the winter that the Gorax King is not hiding behind Tana…the only night when it's pointing to the Fire of the Eternal!"

"What am I to do?"

"Go to the glider launching site and take the telescope with you. You should be able to see an unusually bright star. Stare at it, and you will see the fire burning. Follow that fire if you want to stop your son. The Wa…"

Gunlaag coughed for one last time and fell down, with her eyes wide open. The image of the village shaman faded away from the crystal spinner. Kazak spit on the corpse and looked around at the four warriors.

"And what are you waiting for? Go and organise our defence! All of you!"

"Not me. If you hadn't bullied my son for the past couple of days, he wouldn't have thought that he needed to save us. I am hereby choosing to disobey and do what Logray said."

Warok turned to Kneesaa, who just nodded her head, and then ran out, leaving the Head Elder wondering.


	17. Chapter 17

p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"span lang="SR-LATN-RS" style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"Latara and Teebo, recovered from the series of events that reunited them, went on to examine the corpse of the gurreck. Still exhausted from the long chase, Latara was sitting on her side, sniffing, picking through the animal's fur and looking at its hooves, while Teebo knelt in the snow, his hands on the gurreck's forehead, his eyes closed. After a couple of minutes, he suddenly jumped backwards and / br / "Teebo, what is wrong?" Latara turned around and grabbed her companion's / br / "This animal was possessed by the Night Spirit and I knew it from the moment I saw it chase you from across the grove. But…things seem to be worse than I thought. I never felt the darkness and the black more than I do now. It's unpleasant. It's so dark that it drains the colours out of everything around us and blurs my visions of the future!"br / br / She was trying to be careful this time. "Can you describe that in a way that somebody with no nature powers would understand?"br / br / "Gurrecks are not known to attack Ewoks unless we enter their territory and they normally don't run that fast, because of the shape of their hooves. This animal, however…had all of its soul sucked out of it. The trees say that it's been wandering around Endor for quite a while."br / br / "So, how did you kill it? Are you…that powerful? I have never seen you wield anything bigger than a plain carving knife."br / br / "I don't really know. My gift helped me aim at its neck and I concentrated on not hitting you the moment I threw the axe; but at the same time, this animal would not live to see the morning, becau..."br / br / "But it would kill me before that?" Latara smirked, "Are you trying to present this as an act of mercy for the animal, as opposed to rescuing me?" She pulled her hand from Teebo's and brushed it against the snow. He pulled a strange face and, for a moment, she feared that he would snap at / br / "No! What else do I have to do to explain this to you? Nothing in this world matters to me more than you do! I love you!"br / br / Latara's angry pout turned to a smile. She then giggled, in a semi-teasing, semi-hysterical manner. Teebo looked at his feet and then awkwardly smiled back at her. With her fur kissed by dozens of snowflakes, even amidst fear, she looked more beautiful than ever. Three nights ago was happening all over again, in the worst possible moment. And this time, he blurted out everything that was on his mind without any preparation for it. How could it be that she did not believe his words, when he was straight to the point, for once?br / br / "You have a huge snowflake on your nose." He managed to utter, swallowing a / br / "No, I don't." she leaned on him, "You want to kiss me again and you were looking for yet another of those romantic situations. Right?"br / br / "R-right." he almost frowned, just as she pressed her lips against his and whispered. "T'hesh…for once. Please."br / br / This time, the kiss was brief, but intense. Once again, the snow was falling just like three nights before, but the animal carcass, the pool of its blood, stench in the air in its proximity, a mishmash of footprints and the unusually large and bright star in an otherwise starless night sky were painting a completely different / br / "So, now we kissed as many times as there are fingers on a hand." Latara giggled and then changed her tone. "Let's go find Wicket and Paploo!"br / br / "Tell me what happened again."br / br / "The hunters have expelled Wicket. Paploo and I followed him, we got lost and…at some point, they were gone. They just…disappeared underground upon approaching a strange fire."br / br / Teebo thought for a bit and then shook his head. "Sadly, I was right. I didn't want to be right."br / br / "What do you mean?"br / br / "I'm pretty sure that one of our enemies, those who caused the animals to disappear, is dead. That is what I wanted to tell you before we kissed - the gurreck was out of control because its master was killed." He took a deep breath. "It was an exiled shaman named Gunlaag."br / br / "K'vark! Yesterday Romba spoke about a shaman who manipulated animals, somebody from the village his grandfather came from, but Wunka didn't take him seriously." Latara shook her fist and angrily pulled 'Berry' out of the gurreck carcass, continuing to stab it in snow around her, "Did you meet her? Was she in the village?"br / br / "She was there today. I noticed that things she was saying did not make sense and she did not allow me to heal her injuries, claiming she was modest."br / br / "That roothead...wait." Latara stopped stabbing the snow as she noticed something on the carcass itself, "Did you see this piece of fur on the tusk? K'vark, that looks like Asha's cape! What if this animal killed Asha before it attacked me?"br / br / "There would be flesh and blood all over its fur. This animal was indeed sent by Gunlaag to kill Asha, but Asha escaped unhurt. If the beastmaster hadn't been killed, it would have never attacked you, as possessed animals take orders, like slaves."br / br / "Let me get all of this straight: Gunlaag is the one who sent the gurreck to kill Asha, but how did she start a fire on the other side of the forest? Unbelievable…maybe."br / br / "She didn't. She is somewhat of a cross between Umwak, Gorneesh's shaman…and me. I know this may sound silly, but I have no other way to describe a beastmaster who dabbles in so much con artistry. The same way I am apprenticed to master Logray, this Gunlaag is apprenticed to somebody far more powerful than her. And whoever that creature is, it's somebody aware of Fire of the Eternal!" Teebo stopped for a moment, grabbed a handful of clean snow and swallowed it. "Sorry, I talk too much, my throat was getting dry. Either way, Fire of the Eternal is in some way similar to that passage of the Otherworld used by the Stranger in the battle of the Thorn Forest…"br / br / "Oh. Thorn Forest. That means we actually kissed four times, if kissing you on the cheek counts."br / br / "Latara!"br / br / "Never mind, continue."br / br / "As that passage of the Otherworld opens only when the Sistermoon crosses the closest of the other moons of Tana and both are in line with Endor itself; Fire of the Eternal can be lit only when Tana, the other planets around other suns and stardust in the Gorax King's Heart constellation do not stand in the way of the Gorax King star itself. According to Vi-Laaktar, the greatest Ewok star watcher, who was the shaman of our village hundreds of snows ago, this happened only once and he observed it. It takes…it takes a really powerful shaman to light the Fire of the Eternal and manipulate it. Unlike most other fires, it's cold and…colourful, as opposed to common reds, yellows and oranges."br / br / "Eecha waa ma! I saw it and it was pretty…intense. I can only imagine how it feels for somebody who can hear, feel and taste colour, like you and…if I am guessing this right, master Logray!" Latara hugged Teebo once again, "Does it drag you? Attract you in some way? Do I…have to stop you from doing something stupid?"br / br / "Some Ewoks, like you, don't have any kind of a reaction to it. Some Ewoks, like Wicket and Paploo, act like they inhaled fumes from burning specific herbs. Those of us with nature powers can be affected in many ways far serious than I have the Sunstar with me. It will protect me from any bitter colour experience. Other than that... I am consciously walking into the trap set by…whoever it may be. I don't want to drag you into it. Go home and bang the gong, get help. Wicket and Paploo must make out of this alive and I will provide all the distractions necessary for them to escape!"br / br / Latara smirked. "Teebo! Are you suddenly with Kazak and thinking that a woman has no place in..."br / br / "No! I just think that all of this is too dangerous for somebody I care about!"br / br / "I can take care of myself, lurdo. Did you forget how I knocked down a Yuzzum when you could only hurl a lame two-headed Skee?"br / br / "Of course I didn't...but some of the futures indicate that you will be happy, without me."br / br / Latara was confused. She never bothered to listen to Teebo's visions before, but this time, the strange tone of his voice and lack of the usual gleam in his eyes were a clear sign that this was not a result of him being just a mere dreamer she was smitten with. She pulled him close to herself and ran her hands through his / br / "I don't want anybody to harm you. I want to be by your side. And if you think that dying at the hand of this evil creature is your destiny, I want to change your destiny."br / br / "The right future must emerge from the pool of all possible futures. Usually, the ones calling out louder than the others will end up being it. This is why I believe I will die. I talked to Kneesaa about it. If I indeed die, do not pester her to tell you what happens next, otherwise you will ruin the beauty of your wonderful future." Teebo stopped, losing his bordok cart of thoughts. Latara waited for a couple of minutes and then coughed and nudged him. Only then did he continue. "How about this: I face the one behind all this and you set Wicket and Paploo free?"br / br / "Why can't we just sneak in and save them, then wait for Logray to come up with something that does not require any sacrifice? Why would he have to see us?" Latara / br / "It was written. I am almost sure of it! Let's go. I think I know how to get into the lair. Follow me!"br / br / Latara shrugged.  
In her mind, this was no time for heroics and, though not even the slightest bit capable of nature powers, she thought that there had got to be the way to prove Teebo wrong and alter the future by defeating the mysterious / br / "Teebo, you are as mad as a blasé tree goat who chewed on some niiice herbs, if you know what I mean?"br / br / "Just follow me!" Teebo took her hand. He dragged her to the bordok waiting for them and scribbled a note. His messy signs looked messier than ever. Once done, he put the piece of parchment in the satchel hanging from the saddle. Latara stood by as he looked at the animal, spoke calmly to it in a language that resembled Logray's chants and then placed his hand on its forehead for a couple of seconds. The bordok turned around and galloped / br / "There. Yago now knows the shortest way home possible and, once he's returned to the village, he will head straight to the Council hut! They will know where to look for the three of you…" Teebo turned around and noticed Latara's angry stare, "…all right, the four of us."br / br / They wandered around the grove for a while, until Latara stopped and pointed to a / br / "I am sure that this is where it happened. As you can see, the soil is sort of…plowed through. The tree over there bears the marks of my knife." She shivered, as Teebo hugged / br / "While we cannot make the fire reappear just like that, there has got to be a way to di…"br / br / Just as he said that, the fire started burning from the middle of the clearing, this time with no pebbles around / br / "Forget what I said. This is going to be less complicated than I thought. At this point, we are very close to the point when the Gorax King will be so bright in the sky that the Fire of Eternal has a mind of its own. Nobody is controlling it right now. We need to jump."br / br / "You did not tell me about this! Why jump into the raging fire?"br / br / "Don't worry. As I told you earlier, it's cold."br / br / Seconds later, with one loud "dengar", they jumped into the fire, falling right through./span/p 


	18. Chapter 18

p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: 15.0pt;"span lang="SR-LATN-RS" style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"The Duloks were in the same cave where they last spoke to Gunlaag, waiting for the last set of instructions from the mysterious hooded being. The three outcasts from the swamp faction were sitting in their own corner, at this point barely speaking to their intimidating / br / "Sir, can I have Logray's magic powders?" Umwak asked, as he danced around his friend, greed in his eyes. "Can I have his hanging lizard, his ceremonial wand and-and-and his staff?"br / br / "Whatever you do, just leave Chirpa to me. And the Red Ghost. I want the Red Ghost."br / br / "Does it seem to me or you didn't want her until Gunlaag pointed out that you could revenge her?" The con-artist had to dodge a rock flung his way the moment after he said / br / Gorneesh adjusted his eye patch. This hunt had been a strange experience, as he, Umwak and Umwak's young nephew Galak were trying to keep up with somewhat more bulky, blood-thirsty Duloks from the other faction. Each of their steps were like five steps of his own. Their armour made him think that his shoulder plates were nothing more than a decoration. Their rhetoric was so full of mayhem that anything he had ever said paled in comparison. For the first time since he had broken away from the scattering original tribe, he felt insignificant. His henchman's hint at his lack of logic made him even more helpless, or so he / br / He awkwardly approached the opposite fraction's leader, who was sitting next to the fire and tried to pat him on the back, but changed his mind and only muttered a couple of awkward words, nearly choking on his own / br / "Are you going to talk to your friend again, Patrash?"br / br / Patrash just nodded his head. He was strangely calm for somebody with so much temper. He would not have had to put up with that excuse for a Dulok for much longer. And this was going to be the sweetest revenge he could have imagined, getting rid of the one who broke all the unwritten laws of their species. He never liked Gorneesh much. The fact that his former rival brought two of his own henchmen along was an annoyance of a completely different kind. He knew that Force-sensitive Duloks were a rare sight and that nine out of ten Dulok shamans lacked it, but Umwak's con artistry persisting now that they were allies to powerful beings was making them sick. Had he no shame to stop pretending he was capable of great deeds, or had his shtick been going on for so long that he managed to convince himself he was powerful? Both Umwak and Gorneesh seemed to him like nothing but a pair or clueless moths burning themselves in a lantern, not knowing what they wanted, or the true nature of danger. Those two were nothing like him and Kaalwar. They knew what they wanted. Massacre. Dominance. Blood revenge for their fathers' deaths. And, in their minds, the only right way to achieve this was to wipe the faction they considered a disgrace, groom their children and take their / br / "So?" Gorneesh was waiting for Patrash's / br / "Yes, we'll be talking to our leader. You sure you want to come? You look tired, my friend. And you need strength for the assault. If you want to show Chirpa who's the true ruler of this grove, you are going to need strength!"br / br / "You're so kind to me. I guess I can always take a nap." The one-eyed Dulok leader shrugged, reached for his patched blanket and lied down next to Umwak. Patrash dragged Kaalwar outside, laughing along the / br / "That Gorneesh… he is nothing but a gullible coward! From tonight on, he will be just a scab on the face of glorious Dulok history!"br / br / Once they got out of the cave, the warlord took out a pebble-like precious stone from his pouch and threw it on the ground, causing the snow around it to melt almost immediately. A ghostly vision of the hooded figure formed in the air above. Kaalwar could not see clearly, but it seemed that two Ewoks in wooden cages were hanging from the ceiling of his gigantic / br / "Can you see us, oh, master Wanderer?" Kaalwar was playing with his nose ring and tapping his / br / The hooded creature pointed the finger to his mate. "How are you coming along, Duloks?"br / br / "We will arrive to the Bright Tree Village by the moment the Gorax King is at its brightest, just as you requested. My best warriors are ready to attack, kill and conquer!"br / br / "Great, Patrash. I shall release the cursed animals the moment I...the moment I..."br / br / "What is going on?" Patrash asked, confused. This was the first time the mysterious stranger was / br / "I can feel an unpleasant wave in the fabric of the Night Spirit." The Wanderer started waving his hand, as his red eye flashed again. "My apprentice has been killed! That means Ewoks still have the Sunstar!"br / br / "We have not even seen her since she departed to their village!" Kaalwar shrugged. "How do you know she's been killed?"br / br / "Lies, lies, all lies. You kidnapped her and got the Sunstar. Better confess it or I am going to send the animals in a different direction!"br / br / Kaalwar seemed confused. "We don't need the Sunstar, master. Our tribe is proud, once we have had our revenge and the slaves in Ewoks, we would actually want to live our lives with no magic involved. Less trouble for us."br / br / "What?" The Wanderer clearly didn't see that coming, "Don't you want the riches, the relics and new Ewok fur vests…from white and red fur?"br / br / "We do." Kaalwar sighed. "We are worried about the past encounters, though, so we don't want to imagine those vests while our prey is still giggling, making candles and weaving baskets. Patrash's father died when a wokling called a giant beast…a giant beast that was in love with him or something like that. We would not want to dabble with magic again and lose, just like we once did."br / br / The Wanderer's hood nearly fell down and revealed his gruesome facial features, as his yellow eye flashed red again. A wave of disturbance in the magic hit him from the corridors on the opposite side of the one his prisoners came from, but he tried to stay / br / "He is not going to bother you. While he has indeed grown up to be Logray's new apprentice, he will stay alive only if I can shape him the way I want to."br / br / "And Gunlaag?"br / br / "I would assume it that he killed it as he was on his way into my lair. If you find the body, bring it to me. Once again, the animals will be set free wh..."br / br / The ghostly figure faded away, as Kaalwar shrugged. He was hoping the Wanderer would reappear, but it was getting cold outside, as the snow was falling again. He cooled the gem down with some more snow and then put it back to his pouch. As he continued to discuss strategy with Patrash, a pair of eyes was still staring at both of them from a nearby / br / Galak could not believe what he had just heard. He promptly returned to the cave and started shaking his / br / "Uncle Umwak! Wake up! Wake up!"br / br / "Mmmmhm...Galak? What is going on?" Umwak just yawned "Let me sleep a bit more. I'm telling your mother…"br / br / "We have been betrayed. A hooded creature unlike anything I have seen before showed itself to Kaalwar and Patrash. The master! And they spoke about eliminating everybody from our tribe! The three of us are to be executed at the Bright Tree Village, together with Chirpa, his daughters, his sister, Logray, that Warok whom they are revenging to and his daughter."br / br / King Gorneesh laughed out loud. "Young Galak, you are so tired that your imagination is playing games with you. Why would Patrash and Kaalwar get rid of us?"br / br / Umwak squeaked and covered his mouth with his hands. "So, that would wipe all of us men other than bratlings and uncle Murgoob away?"br / br / "Yes. Patrash wants your wives to be the mother of his children. He probably wants the Sunstar as well. He wants everything." The young Dulok, whom nobody ever listened to, had the future of his tribe in his hands. As scared as he was, with both his uncle and the king staring at him angrily, he continued. "There is a way out. But for the first time in your life, both of you will have to listen to each other. For real. And me. Listen to me. And swallow your pride, this one time."br / br / The image projecting onto the wooden carvings in the lair faded away. The Wanderer shook his head. Kaalwar seemed somewhat suspicious upon learning of Gunlaag's death. The merciless Dulok warlord, full of rage, had second thoughts. Did he take it too far this time? Why did he even mention those Ewok fur vests? Ulgo, Kaalwar's father wore one when he died at the hand of Warok and his warriors. He should have instead mentioned precious stones, domestic animals, anything but that. What part of his patched-up body and mind could have made this dreadful mistake? Was Logray already aware of him and trying to invade his mind?br / br / On the other hand, he was worried about Gunlaag's sudden demise. Sacrificing her was indeed a part of his plan, but only after he would have converted the young Ewok she and Kaalwar spoke of. She was to be choked by him, by the power of Night Spirit; after he would have been subjected to wearing his father's bones, tasting his sister's raw flesh and driving his mother into suicide or subjecting her to torture by Patrash and Kaalwar's / br / Another wave in Night Spirit, a pulsating, intense wave going up to the high, cobweb-covered ceiling of his lair, made him snap out of his torture fantasies.  
His would-be assassin was already there, he could sense a strong presence of mostly Light, with only dotted traces of the Night Spirit. This was to be a chore, he thought to himself, transforming an Ewok with no bad bone in his body to a dark apprentice. This was to be a challenge, as opposed to Gunlaag, who was convinced the moment he mentioned revenging / br / He tried to recall his own transformation to the servant of the Night Spirit. Nothing came to mind, leading him to conclusion that most, if not all dark mages forget their previous life. Nothing came to mind regarding what his lean, nearly fleshless body used to be like, either. He was not a Dulok. He was not an Ewok. He was not a Tulgah, either. He claimed himself a new name, he learned all the secrets of dark rituals, but what was that he used to be before that?br / br / Once again, nothing came to mind. The Wanderer turned around, pulled the hood over his face and started chanting, so quietly that Wicket and Paploo in their cages could not make out the / br / "I know you're nearby, I can sense your presence. You are not here by accident, young one. I am more powerful than your master will ever be. You cannot change your destiny. Come and accept it. Join me."/span/p 


	19. Chapter 19

Umwak was running to the Bright Tree Village, knowing that he had to be there long before Patrash and Kaalwar would have even noticed his disappearance. The idea of surrendering to Chirpa and his Council of Elders had initially seemed stranger than any of his own plans of the past, those that would usually end up being labelled as Gorneesh's. But young Galak convinced him. Their own lives and lives of their tribesmen mattered more than their foolish pride.

He stopped to catch his breath, his large green feet aching from running through the thick snow. There were so many things he needed to confess to himself. His entire life was a web of lies. He was not capable of magic. To this day, he had managed to learn how to make a couple of potions and most of them were not doing anything, just like his "special glasses" couldn't do anything. He was nothing but a con artist who gave himself a traditional Dulok shaman ponytail and made a necklace out of an embalmed hand he once found in the swamp around his neck.

Never before had he felt so humiliated. Installing him as the shaman of the swamp's faction was a consolation prize; as the announcement at Gorneesh and Urgah's wedding ceremony caught him by surprise. For the most part, it was only his hermit uncle Murgoob who was aware of his lack of magical knowledge.

And now, caught in the trap of reliving all of his bad memories, he was proven wrong by the only being ever able to see through him - his patient and, until tonight, obedient nephew. Since when did Galak grow up so much? Could it be that the boy was smarter than him and Gorneesh, together?

These thoughts were an unwelcome distraction.

"Must get to the Bright Tree Village and beg for help…" Umwak whispered to himself, hating the sound of his own words and how they stank of defeat. "This is the only way we can save our people. The only way. Must get to Logray!"

The moment he whispered the old Ewok's name, the hand relic came alive, broke itself free from the string it was hanging on and grabbed him by the neck, suffocating him. He tried to pull its fingers back, but it only caused his own hands to turn blue. He was losing his breath.

"Kaa'toosha!"

A ray of light flashed from a staff. The hand released the grip on Umwak's neck and the Dulok passed out. Logray emerged from behind a nearby tree, followed by that chieftain friend of his. As the ghostly hand was now levitating enclosed in a halo, the two approached their unconscious rival.

"This is getting too complicated for me!" Chirpa shook his head. "You said that we were very likely to bump into Teebo and stop him, if we're using this shortcut, with Warok covering the other. But I did not expect to see this. How secret is this secret road, exactly?"

Logray sat down in the snow and checked Umwak's neck for signs of life.

"Thank Light Spirit, he is alive." He opened his large satchel and pulled out a tiny bottle. "Chirpa, put that spear down. Help me open his mouth and have him swallow some of this. Whatever he may say once he comes round is crucial to our survival."

"I don't understand anything, Logray! Whose hand is this? We have seen Umwak wear it countless times before and I don't remember it being alive, let alone turning on him!"

"Neither do I, as you can imagine. I thought he had stolen it from some other shaman, but it seems that…" Logray turned around. "Is that mooing I hear?"

A long-furred bordok was running towards them. Chirpa was ready to get out of its way, pulling the barely-conscious Umwak along; but Logray calmly stood in the animal's way. The bordok seemed to be slowing down.

"Yago? Yago the untameable? What are you doing here?"

The animal sat down, as Logray patted it between its horns.

"You are a good bordok, Yago. And knowing that you are normally the worst of the worst in the village's stable, I can think of only one Ewok who could have tamed and mounted you."

Yago brushed his large head against the shaman and allowed him to access the satchel hanging from the saddle he wore. Chirpa, still holding Umwak, was looking on. Logray pulled out a piece of parchment.

"Just as I expected. Fire of the Eternal." He stopped and looked at Chirpa and Umwak, demanding their attention. "We need to jump on the back of this animal and get home before the Gorax King is at its peak!"

They mounted the bordok, placing Umwak between them, his long, thin body hanging onto Chirpa, as if he were a mere, helpless wokling. Once Logray whispered a couple more words in the mystic language of magic, Yago stood up and started galloping. The trapped hand was floating above them in its own halo, following the twitching gem on the shaman's staff.

"Can I ask questions now?" Chirpa was slightly annoyed at the way Umwak's scrawny limbs were poking him, but even more so at the prospect of appearing clueless. "I will start with something simple: what is going on?"

Logray took a deep breath. "Teebo wrote the note I just retrieved from Yago's satchel. He didn't sign it, but his writing is so messy that it could not have been anybody else. He has gone to find something, but he's not sure what. Latara is with him, after she apparently refused to mount this very bordok and go back home. He also thinks that Wicket and Paploo are held captive at the place he is trying to locate."

"Does that mean that Wicket and Paploo tried to find this something before him? They never attended your star-watching lectures!"

"I don't think so. Either way…Teebo somehow missed seeing Gunlaag at her worst and unknowingly put your daughters in danger by leaving his place...Chirpa, I cannot see your face because I'm sitting behind you, but I know you're snarling and you should not. Now, where was I? Oh, chak, Teebo was at the observatory and he figured out that the Gorax King will be at its most luminous at some point tonight and he saw the Fire of the Eternal..."

"Sorry to interrupt, sir..." Umwak raised his hand, barely managing to hold his balance on the bordok's back. "I have something to tell you, sir."

"I remember you calling my friend 'old fool' and now he's 'sir'?" the chieftain fumed, but Logray patted him on the back.

"Chirpa, let him be! He's learned his lesson. What do you have to tell us?"

"Well, sir, you know Gunlaag, the Ewok witch who recruited us? Well... that creature my nephew saw talking to Kaalwar and Patrash says she's dead. He thinks that your apprentice killed her."

"Umwak, we know she is dead and we also know who killed her, and it wasn't my apprentice. We also know that Patrash and Kaalwar are planning to attack us. Is there something else? There has got to be a reason you were running to our village, using a shortcut not many of us know of."

"There is." Umwak nodded his head and held on to Chirpa. "Gunlag's master used her and his own powers combined to capture all the large animals and they will be released when the star you spoke of is at its brightest. Then they will then attack my tribe's hunters who have been sent to capture your hunters...stomping and stabbing everybody to death. My people have been tricked into this…"

"…and that is supposed to happen at the same time when Patrash and Kaalwar attack our village and…oh, k'vark!"

Chirpa pulled Yago's reins and the animal, still under Teebo and Logray's spells, stopped for a moment. The great chief had finally realised something.

"Umwak, have you even seen this mysterious wizard Gunlaag worked for? Did you make this entire thing up?"

Logray was just about to assure his friend that the Dulok was not lying, but when Umwak shook his head, the shaman changed his mind, as he had put the missing pieces together.

"It's the hand! We need to dispose of the hand!"

"What?" Umwak and Chirpa yelled at the same time.

"This hand you have been wearing around your neck for so many snows — it belonged to this mysterious wizard whom Gunlaag was working for. It was originally you that he wanted to serve him, but then he realised you were not gifted with nature powers. Then he found Gunlaag, likely through Zarrak and Patrash. This hand has a life of its own and it's been controlling the animals for the past couple of days." Logray took the reins from Chirpa. "Yago, move! The Sunstar will help us dispose of the hand and this will also weaken this creature's powers."

As the lights of the Bright Tree Village became visible in the distance, Umwak managed to look up to the sky. Even through the dense treetops, Gorax King was shining brighter than ever before. From this point on, everything was a race against the time.

…

Latara and Teebo had landed in one of the dead end, on a patch of moist soil. Luckily, the lantern was in one piece, so they could look around. The walls appeared to be unusually moist as well, with light green, seemingly bioluminescent mould covering them. A row of unusually straight and rounded tree roots seemed to lead towards a light in the distance. Behind the third root, two roads were leading to left and right.

"Are you all right?" Teebo asked. "I have been thinking – you should somehow tuck that braid under your hat. It has grown too long and it could be a problem…if we end up having to run, or something."

Latara ignored the suggestion. "This was the coldest fire ever! What do we do now? How do we find Wicket and Paploo?"

"We had Vi-Laktaar's facts to lead us underground. From this point on, it's blank parchment." Teebo shook his head and pointed the lantern to the strange roots. There was nothing about them in any of the dozens of scrolls on plant life. Knocking on them confused him even more, as they seemed to be hollow and the sound did not resemble anything he had ever heard. Not knowing what else to do, he turned to Latara who was still sitting on the ground. Before he could say something, she started talking again.

"Are you saying that we could die? Oh, wait, you said that earlier. If nothing else, I am going to be the most beautiful corpse ever." She giggled and he could not tell if this was a joke, a strange way for her to encourage herself, or both. And then she burst into laughter. "Can't you see that I am teasing you? The fire has no effect on me – I'm vain with or without it. So, what's the plan?"

"The plan, the plan…you will take the lantern and take the left corridor. I will take the right one. I am pretty certain that they lead to the same place and that there are many more such corridors. If you see Wicket and Paploo before I do, use your knife to free them. If I see them, I will try something else."

Latara frowned. "You have no weapons of any kind. I don't want anybody to hurt you." She pulled Teebo by the hand; he misinterpreted the gesture and helped her to her feet.

"I guess that's how it works, after all." she thought to herself. "I ignored his warning, he is ignoring mine." After a silent look into each other's eyes they parted.

As she was walking through the narrower, left corridor, she turned around solely to see him looking her way. Smiling, she pointed the lantern towards him. Slightly hunched, he smiled back and waved, his green eyes reflecting the light. She had always been aware that he was handsome for a young Ewok male, fact which contrasted sharply with his alternately awkward and unusually gentle mannerisms. Yet she seemed to have forgotten that over the course of the last few days. Instead of fantasizing about just being with him somewhere, alone, as she so often used to do, she would instead find herself wondering if she had hurt him, how he perceived this or that thing she said and how they could bond to understand each other better. And then she turned the lantern the other way, cursing herself. Why did she have to realise it was love and not lust just at the moment when they were both trapped in a twisted, underworld maze?

Her thoughts ground to a sudden halt as the lantern burned out, she proceeded with caution, touching the ground ahead of her. She was hoping she would soon see some sort of light, but there was nothing but darkness both before and after her.

On the other side, Teebo had already managed to find his way into the gigantic chamber. Just like the straight, hollow roots, this place was far beyond his knowledge. Everything he had ever read, from the teachings of Vi-Laktaar to his own master's discoveries, was suddenly meaningless. Whoever it was that created this must have had the knowledge thousands of snows ahead of his own.

He made his way towards the dark circle in the middle of the chamber. Despite his feeling of unease, he stood on it and looked at the night sky through what appeared to be the only visible way out. Just as he had assumed earlier, the Gorax King was the only star visible through the opening and it was nearing its brightest.

"Teebo! How did you get here?"

He looked to the left and saw Wicket and Paploo in their cages. Paploo did not seem fully aware of his surroundings, but Wicket was holding onto the bars and trying to force his way. Teebo ran up to the cages.

"Who has done this to you?"

"Somebody who has far worse plans for you. We are just going to become wooden carvings in the walls of this place, or so I think. You, on the other hand, are what he wants most."

Teebo looked at Paploo, who seemed to be laughing at both him and Wicket. He assumed both of his friends were still under the influence of the Fire of the Eternal.

"I need to get you out of here!" He reached for the gem in his satchel. "I think I can cut these ropes somehow. Just watch your heads."

Activating the Sunstar seemed to be taking an unusual amount of time. Usually, it would have fired by now. Teebo dropped to his knees, trying to channel energy from all of his limbs to the gem. Nothing happened.

"It…it doesn't work!"

"Of course it doesn't, you fool." A raspy voice said, in a mocking tone. "It's a painted stone from the river!"

Before he turned around, Teebo looked at Wicket again. The expression in his friend's face was like nothing he had seen before. Seconds later, he was face to face with the monstrous being behind all of the recent events. And this being had just grabbed his wrist and scratched him.

"The sweet taste of youth, innocence and the strongest nature powers I have ever tasted in a creature's blood. Dare I welcome you? I have been waiting for you for a while now." The Wanderer's gnarly hand drew a rounded shape in the air. "Once the light from the Gorax King shines on the black circle, my powers will reach their full potential. And you, you will be mine!"

"Never!"


	20. Chapter 20

"There is no such thing as never." The Wanderer laughed. "I am very persistent. Remember earlier today? When your caring master reached out to you and his word echoed in your head? He told you to be careful because there are powerful wizards who can reach out to foolish young apprentices, too." He mockingly immitated Logray's voice. "He loves you and respects your powers so much, doesn't he? Doesn't he?"

Teebo's green eyes suddenly flashed yellow.

"It was you!" He pulled out the axe from the strap. "You wanted me to leave my duty and come here, at your feet!"

The Wanderer was calm.

"Know what else? I like anger. You are most certainly angry. Go ahead. I can even help you. See, you are holding that axe backwards. If you want to kill me, you need to hold it right."

Teebo looked at the blade of Chukha-Trok's axe. It was facing him. He turned it around and it turned itself back. And again. And again. Whatever was going on, it was not making much sense to him.

…

Yago galloped up the stairway to the Bright Tree Village, carrying Logray, Chirpa and Umwak on his back. The guards were nowhere to be seen and there were no lights in any of the huts – the Council of Elders had already evacuated the elderly and the woklings.

"Dengar, Ewoks!" Deej Warrick's voice echoed from the lookout post, as a couple of other older warriors swung from a vine.

"A Dulok!" Chukha-Trok ran towards the bordok and then stopped, realising he no longer had his axe with him. "Somebody help me, he's got our chief and our shaman!"

Chirpa looked at the woodsman. "Umwak is with us. So is this…"

"Floating hand?" Lumat asked, pointing to the strange relic in a halo, that seemed to be following Logray to his hut.

"Chak, the floating hand. We need to destroy it." The shaman didn't even turn around, Chirpa and Umwak followed him, the latter holding on to the chieftain's shoulder. Chukha-Trok remained behind, holding Yago's reins.

"I don't understand anything." The woodsman shook his head and then he remembered something. "Logray…hey, Logray! I gave my axe to your fair-forelocked apprentice. He was upset and he took this very bordok…"

Logray stopped.

"What?"

"He said that great danger lay ahead of us and he went…somewhere. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Bless your spirit, Chukha! Sometimes you just need to keep your mouth shut. You should have stopped him. You…" The shaman stopped for a second. ".You…big…strong…burly one. You are just what we need. Come here. Quick!"

…

The Wanderer laughed. Teebo was still not succeeding at turning the blade of his axe around, getting angrier and angrier and snarling "k'vark" after "k'vark" each time he failed. Wicket was no longer trying to set himself free. Instead, he kept on swallowing lumps, wondering why his friend could not complete this simple task. As quietly and unobtrusively as he could, he swung his cage to the other.

"Paploo. How about we try to swing our cages and jump on this worm-eating lurdo?"

"Close your eyes and dream of nice things! Tee-hee!" Paploo yelled, as loud as he could. Teebo turned around for a moment, not realising his friend was still under the influence of the Fire of the Eternal.

"Silence, you up there!" The Wanderer's eye flashed red, as he directed a single purple bolt towards the bigger cage.

"What? What is going on? Help!" Paploo screamed as he felt sharp pain. "Where am I? What is going on?"

"The Fire of the Eternal brings out strange things in people and emphasizes the worst of them." The Wanderer pointed to Paploo again. "You were likely annoying before this; otherwise you would not have ended up completely unbearable after breathing some of the fumes. And now, you are distracting me from the task at hand! I am going to dispose of you this very moment, so I could finish what I have started."

…

Logray was holding the Sunstar in his hands, leaning on his staff and chanting with his eyes closed. Chirpa and a very confused Umwak were holding onto him. The later could not help but stare at the large, bright star in the dotted corner of the sky that had just happened to be visible through the window. It seemed to be getting brighter every moment. He was trying his best not to panic. The Ewoks already knew he was a coward, but he was still holding on to the little bit of pride he had left.

Chukha-Trok lay on the hut floor before them, wrestling the ghostly hand. Sweat was dripping from his brown fur. He was getting tired.

"This thing is trying to kill me! How long will it take?"

"Hold on for a bit more." Chirpa barked. "Even I can feel the Sunstar taking my energy. It's working!"

The woodsman bit the hand, solely to discover it was bitter.

"This does not even taste like…old meat." He spat and wiped his mouth.

"Just keep on distracting it!"

…

The red eye flashed a warning again. The Wanderer extended his hooded arms towards Paploo's cage, his left hand peeking from the robe. The frightened Ewok put both of his hands on his face.

"Goodbye…friend!"

"Wicket…Teebo…anybody!"

At that moment, the axe flew towards the Wanderer, narrowly missing his left hand and cutting a large portion of his right. The hooded villain lost his balance, and the purple ray he aimed at Paploo hit one of the wooden carvings in the chamber's wall. Paploo peeked through his hands.

"He told me to close my eyes, didn't he?" Teebo extended his hand to grab the weapon that found its way back to him. "Well, even when he appears 'annoying' to you; his words were clear to me. He did not want to see me in pain and I most certainly did not want to see him in pain."

The Wanderer looked at Teebo. He could swear that the young Ewok's eyes were flashing yellow for a moment and he thought the transformation to the Night Spirit was going to be simple. One step forward was followed by three steps back. He remembered Gunlaag saying that this shaggy wokling had beaten Zarrak by attacking him with flying leaves, but he did not expect him to be in control of much larger objects.

The hooded wizard had to change his approach. And he had to change it fast.

…

The hand dropped to the floor. Chukha-Trok stopped wrestling it and poked it with his thumb. Nothing happened.

"It's dead. Logray! It's dead!"

The old shaman stopped chanting. Chirpa and Umwak let go of his shoulders.

"Sir, does this mean it won't attack me again?" the Dulok stuttered, casting another glance at the sky. The star seemed to be blinking.

Logray directed the Sunstar at the hand relic. The gem reduced it to ashes.

"This hand will never attack anybody again!"

"Does this mean I got it…tired?" Chukha-Trok caressed his own arm muscles, winking.

"I don't think so. We were trying for longer than I had expected."

He went silent.

"Logray? What is wrong?"

"Whatever this creature is, its arm has just been cut off. The axe…oh, k'vark. Chirpa...I am exhausted, otherwise I would do it myself. Go outside and tell Lumat or Deej to bring me Batcheela and Malani, unless they were taken to the old abandoned huts..."

"But..are you thinking that Teebo might…"

"We have no time. Also, get your older daughter. Once the animals have been set free, I am going to need her."

…

The Wanderer was standing between the cages and the black circle. He was no longer able to spin the axe other way and cause the young Ewok to get angry. Teebo was pacing nervously from side to side, the bloody weapon in his hand.

"The vision that appeared in my prophecy pool did not show such an eloquent youngster. As a matter of a fact, you looked like a girl."

"Maybe your prophecy pool has been poisoned!"

"Speaking of prophecy pools, of course you know what they are. You have seen one before, in Zarrak's hideout. Remember Zarrak? You killed him. You have it in you. You are as bad as me!" the Wanderer yelled out loud.

Holding onto the bars of his cage, Wicket gasped. He was re-envisioning the moment Zarrak felt into the Realm of Spirits, never to come back. For the first time in many snows, he was worried that his best friend might have a vile side to him, — a vile side that could change him from the kindest Ewok he knew to a monster.

"I don't kill for fun. Zarrak tried to get rid of me and then…"

The Wanderer cut Teebo off mid-sentence.

"Do you remember Morag, the Tulgah witch? She considered you to be about as significant as a munyip dropping and then, your silly wokling games led her to her demise."

"Morag was evil until her very last breath. She tried to take my Master down with him! My friends…"

Once again, the Wanderer interrupted Teebo.

"You also got rid of my previous servant, Mistress Gunlaag!"

"I did not! She was very much alive when I left the village. I feel and know that she is dead, but I did not kill her."

The young shaman apprentice was enraged, not realising that the dark wizard was lying and that Gunlaag herself had betrayed him previously. His eyes flashed yellow for a moment again.

"You knew she would die! She might have not died from my magic…still, it does not change anything. You knowingly pushed her into a death trap!"

"You have contributed to it, nevertheless. Now, kneel before me! I am not here to change your destiny, I am your destiny."

Teebo shook his head.

"I said kneel before me! Your fellow villagers are in for a bloodbath, your master will not survive and he won't be able to teach you all he knows, if he ever wanted to, for that matter. I am your only way."

"Know what my friend up there in the cage would say? Eat worms and die!"

Wicket and Paploo looked at each other.

The Wanderer walked towards the black circle, which was now completely illuminated by the starlight through the hole in the ceiling.

Teebo snarled and, just as he was about to close his eyes, concentrate and throw the axe again, he noticed a lean shadow on the wall. Seconds later, Latara was running towards the Wanderer, with a knife between her teeth.

"Latara, no! Don't!"

"Who's this little tart?" The Wanderer laughed.

"Whom did you just call a tart?" Latara snapped and dropped the knife, then tripped over it and fell down, about twenty steps away from her target.

"That's the oldest trick in the scrolls…" Paploo frowned and shook his head. Unexpectedly, Wicket gestured to him to keep quiet.

Latara got up, grabbed her knife and then realised her braid was stuck in a crack on the tiled floor. The dark wizard cackled with amusement, as she tried to pull it out.

"So, what do we have here? A young Ewok female with a hunting knife? I don't even have to taste your blood. You are the worst of the worst. No single trace of anything in you. If Light and Night Spirit were food, you would have starved to death long before birth."

"If a being's heart needed to be full of love to pump blood, you would have been long dead yourself." Latara fumed. "And I would do anything for love." With one swing of her knife, she cut her braid off. "See?"

"This does not look good." Paploo looked at Wicket, who did not even turn to him.

The Wanderer was pleased. Latara was just what he needed, — a backup plan out of nowhere, since nothing else he tried had worked. He turned to Teebo again.

"How foolish of you, young Ewok! You first jumped into a raging fire and then you exposed this…entertaining friend of yours to something she won't survive." No answer. "I can sense that you and this girl are more than just friends and that you would trade anything for her. So, how about you join me and she lives? Her skin for your loyalty?"

"Don't listen to him!" Latara managed to mutter, as something seemed to be suffocating her. "As I said earlier, I will be a beautiful corpse!"

No answer.

"Fine. Then she will die." The Wanderer hissed.

Latara screamed, as her captor dropped her on the black circle and started chanting, his hand reaching upwards, to the pulsating star in the night sky. Seconds before he could act, Teebo jumped from the other side, in front of his beloved.

"Lie down!" he pushed her to the ground and held her down, just as the reddish-purple blast hit him in the face. He dropped to his knees and bit his tongue, not wanting to give his enemy the pleasure of hearing him weep. Surprisingly, some blood came out. His jaw was feeling too small.

"See how you're kneeling before me now?" the Wanderer growled, as Teebo lifted himself up.

"What happened to his teeth? And his ears?" Paploo asked Wicket. Their friend's teeth indeed looked larger than before, with visibly sharp fangs, and his ears were no longer as droopy and rounded.

The Wanderer's eye had stopped flashing. It was now burning bright red. He did not expect Teebo to survive a direct hit with – in his mind – only minor consequences.

"Since you won't surrender and become my servant, you will die the most painful and humiliating death possible!"

Teebo starred into the red, not looking away. A thought crossed his mind.

"It's a gem! If only I had the Sunstar…or anything I could reach it with. He has no eyes; the gem helps him see and breeds the life into him…"

"The Gorax King's Heart will help me feed my gem's powers! And you figured this out too late. And it's too late to surrender!

"Not like I would!" the young shaman yelled, no longer surprised that the enemy was reading his mind. He pushed Latara away, preparing to make his last stand. The Wanderer laughed again.

"Your girl will have the most memorable experience of seeing your demise. If I let her live and tell others, they shall bow to me out or sheer fear of ending up like you! Not to mention that you won't be, as she says, a beautiful corpse. You will be a pile of burning flesh and broken bones!"

The Wanderer pointed his finger again. Teebo first dropped to his knees again, then fell down, disarmed, no longer able to hold the axe. The mysterious energy channelled through the red eye-gem was getting under his fur. His vision was getting blurry, his skin hot and his breathing heavy. He reached for his pouch, only to find that it was turning to ashes. Another pile of ashes went into his mouth from the top of his head. He had nothing to use against the enemy.

"No!" Latara cried, and then she felt the stone axe fall underneath her foot. With the last bit of hope, she aimed towards the Wanderer, but missed him, as she tossed the axe too far.

"You really do throw like a girl! Too bad for you! Even worse for him!" the monster pointed his staff at Teebo's eyes and fired again. "You will live for just as long to hear your friends scream in agony as their flesh turns to wood…but you won't be able to see it."

Wicket and Paploo watched what was going on below them, horrified. Then the diminutive Ewok saw the axe land right below the cages.

"Paploo, can you swing as hard as you can, only one more time? You are heavier; you could break free and then reach for that axe."

Paploo asked no questions. Wicket had been wrong so many times that night, but this time he had to be right. He swung one more time and, seconds later, he was on the floor, his cage in pieces.

"Now aim at the rope holding my cage!" Wicket yelled.

Paploo was shivering and his throat went completely dry. He dropped the axe once. Then he threw it again.

This time he cut the rope. The other cage crashed on top of him. He bit his tongue chopped through the bars to get Wicket out.

"W-Wicket, w-what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry about me! Just be ready to do what I say once the time comes!"

"But..."

"Please! Just do it!"

Paploo nodded. Wicket reached for the bag hidden under his hood and pulled out the brightly coloured toy. He ran towards the black circle, pushing the toy ahead of him.

"Hey, worm-face! I'm coming for you!"

The Wanderer turned around. How had his prisoner escaped? Teebo was lying next to Latara, barely breathing, no longer a threat to him. He decided to go after Wicket.

"Whom did you call a worm-face, you tree rat?"

"You. You are a worm-face! Come and get me."

The Wanderer ran up from the black circle, only to land straight on the wheeled toy heading towards him. He fell down on the steep surface. Seconds later, Wicket jumped on top of him, with the axe.

"Your lame prophecy pool said nothing about me defeating you! This is for my friend!"

He smashed the Wanderer in the chest. The dark wizard let out a barely audible squeak. There was no blood.

"Latara was right! You truly have no heart!" Wicket managed to mutter, before the Wander started wrestling him. They fell to the black circle.

"Don't let him raise his hand!" Paploo cried from the top, as Latara was standing there, screaming.

"The red gem…your knife…" a weak voice, mixed with sighs, whispered to her. She looked to Teebo. He was still alive.

Latara ran towards Wicket, who was still sitting on top of the Wanderer's chest. She was scared. The Wanderer's eye was flashing on and off, as Wicket was trying to keep his hand down. And then, the hooded head turned towards her.

"Get away from here, tart. You are blocking my starlight!"

"Wicket! Now!" Latara pulled the knife from behind her back and managed to reach her friend.

"Now it's really the time for you to eat worms and die, monster!"

As the Wanderer began to reach towards Latara, Wicket stabbed the red eye-gem with the knife, cracking it. Its colour went from flaming red to pinkish, and then faded away to white.

" You're nothing without your gem." Wicket yelled. "Nothing. Nothing but a corpse long eaten alive by the Night Spirit! Coward!"

Without further thinking, Wicket grabbed the axe and hit the Wanderer in the chest again. The ensuing explosion threw him upwards and backwards to the remains of the cages.

Moments later, the whole construction started rumbling, as in the middle of a quake. With the Wanderer's body gone, his lair seemed to be falling apart, too. The walls were crashing down and the previously small hole in the ceiling leading to the black circle kept on widening.

"We have to get out of here, quick! Paploo, Latara, get Teebo out!"

"No, the two of you should come here…the circle is the only safe place. The starlight!" Latara yelled, picking up the gem from the pile of ashes. Wicket and Paploo slid down towards her.

The rumbling sound kept on getting louder, as the wooden statues were crashing down. A cloud of dust was rising up towards the ray of starlight. The underground chamber was collapsing.

As the dust settled, there was only silence. The three young Ewoks covered in dirt and sawdust were standing on a cracked circle in the middle of what looked like large crater, holding the body of their unconscious friend.


	21. Chapter 21

Warok was sitting on a small stump outside Logray's hut, with Latara and a bare-headed Wicket tucked in blankets to his right and Chief Chirpa and Princess Kneesaa to his left. A little farther away Paploo was helping his mother collect all she could get from the rubble to which most of their hut had been the lookout post above, Graak was looking at the woods through the telescope from the observatory, confused and not quite understanding how to deal with the strange tool. Somewhere off in the distance the bravest warriors of the village were about to attack Patrash and Kaalwar's Dulok army.

Only a cloud or two had passed by the strange star dominating the night sky, since Warok had returned to the Bright Tree Village. He was flying above Paploo and Wicket riding on the back of a stubborn bordok named Yago; that had somehow appeared out of nowhere, with a cart.

And only about half a dozen of clouds had passed by the same star since the moment he had been about to call off the search, the moment when the strange fire he had seen earlier seemed to have disappeared. He was about to turn his glider around when he noticed a cloud of dust rising from the same direction. He steered his glider to the snow-covered meadow nearby and decided to take a closer look. When the curtain of smoke and sawdust parted to reveal a large crater in the middle of the clearing, he thought his surprise could not have been any greater, but what he saw next he saw nearly broke him.

"Here they are, Warok. Warok?"

Warok turned around to see Shodu Warrick standing across the platform. She brought Batcheela and Malani along from the hideout. Both of them were sporting spasm-like expressions on their faces. Warok moved a bit for his wife to sit down, as his daughter climbed into his lap. They exchanged a few looks with Kneesaa and Latara. Shodu helped her youngest son put on his old orange hood, then walked off with the chief.

Batcheela finally broke the silence. "When will we be able to go in?"

Warok shrugged and looked at Latara. For the past couple of snows, he had not bothered to remember the name of his son's crush. He knew her as either "Lumat's daughter" or the "that girl with a braid". She was always doing so many strange things he had not seen anybody do before. She painted her nails and lips. She happily told the woklings stories of where they really came from, instead of retelling the same old story with how each Ewok baby is found underneath a tree, or in a large flower. She once ran away with the Jindas. She had always made him think of nothing but trouble. And then, earlier that night, he had found her next to his son, holding his limp hand and whispering to him to hold on. The braid was gone, and so was the namelessness. In a vortex of fear for his child and blaming himself for what he used to think before, he had remembered her name. Latara. The one who sings to the moon. He promised himself never to forget her name again.

Inside the hut, Logray was hurriedly mixing some herbs. Asha was standing next to him. She was nervous, shifting from one foot to the other. She was still sore from running around in the snow all day and from the battle at Bozzie's hut, and she harboued numerous bruises under her thick red fur, but she did not seem one bit tired.

"If anybody can pull this, it's you. I have to stay here and…try and see if there is anything I can do to save my apprentice." The shaman paused for a while and then added. "I hope you can understand that, Asha."

"Chak, Master Logray. If the animals have indeed been freed from the spell of that vicious creature Wicket killed, I know just what to do."

They went out. Asha headed to the stable, and Logray looked to the group of Ewoks waiting on the platform.

"You can come in now," he said. "No, not all of you. Only Batcheela, Warok and Malani."

"We don't want our daughter to witness this," Warok declined. "I know that this has been quite a night for you, but...could you, please, take care of Malani? I know you're already watching Latara, but…"

The princess nodded. She hadn't said much since her father had returned to the village with Umwak and Logray. Right before her eyes, there was a constant, repetitive shadow play of what had happened at Bozzie's hut. And sat right next to her was her unrequited love of so many years, not wanting any comfort from her, or from anybody else for that matter. Latara was similarly apathetic, still in shock from everything that had happened to her that night.

Little Malani, in contrast, was doing her best to appear cheerful. For some reason, she was sure that her brother was going to be alright. But Kneesaa and Latara were not paying attention, and neither was Wicket.

And then Malani remembered something: the piece of parchment that was still hidden under her hood.

"Latara?"

"M-hm…" the flutist turned around.

"I think Teebo would want you to have this. This is the thing Wiley…" The little girl paused; Kneesaa turned to her, suddenly interested, as she continued. "…the thing Wiley did not eat the other day. I have been saving it for you, Latara."

Latara unfolded the piece of parchment. The messy symbols were hard to read at first, but eventually she realised she was reading a poem dedicated to her - the very same note Teebo tried to pass to her before she had departed with the hunting party.

I left my heart  
Above the village huts  
On a cold snowy night  
I froze completely  
When I kissed you

Snowflakes were so big  
The wind was blowing, too  
My heart is in your hands  
Amongst the bright stars  
None of them brighter than you  
The wind should've carried me away

I couldn't believe you were with me  
I couldn't believe you were mine  
We sank into white pure as your smile

I want to be there  
With you  
Forever  
Would you stay here  
With me  
Forever?

She could not hold back the tears anymore. She patted Malani on the head and then hugged both her and Kneesaa, crying into her hands.

Wicket, meanwhile, was pretending to adjust the bib of his hood.

…

Batcheela stepped inside first and let Logray lead her to his canopy bed, where Teebo lay still in a patch of his own fur which was rapidly falling off, covered in Wicket's green hood. His fair forelock was mostly gone; his jaw seemed too small for his teeth. In his hands there was a long, fair braid.

"Honeydrop, can you hear me? It's me, your mother." Batcheela touched her son's cheek, causing another patch of full to fall off. There was no response. "Logray…can he?" She put her head on his chest. "His heart is beating. But he's showing no other signs of life."

"He did not wake up during the ride back home," Warok explained. "According to Latara, he regained consciousness right before Wicket killed that creature...what did Bozzie say his name was, the Wanderer...he regained conscience for a moment and said that the eye was a powerful gem."

"A powerful gem, indeed." Logray shook his head. "It sucked out most of his life juices."

"What does this mean, master? Is our son going to die?"

"No, Warok. There is one thing that can save him. I will have to use the Sunstar."

"Has this been done before, Master?" Batcheela seemed suspicious.

"Chak, but not in an Ewok village. There is nothing about this in my scrolls. It's a secret that I never documented in any way. I saw it done when I was Morag's servant. She used the purple side of the gem to revive her precious mantigrue once and the beast came alive, right before my eyes, even though it had been badly wounded."

"Is this safe?" Warok asked.

"As long as Kazak and the rest of the Council of Elders never finds out about it, chak, it's safe. The Sunstar's powers will significantly fade for a while. But just as a good wizard relies on himself first and magic the second, which your son did tonight, this village needs to rely on its warriors in the times of need."

Logray put on one of his ceremonial masks. He removed the green hood from Teebo's head and handed it to Batcheela, together with Latara's braid. He placed the gem on his apprentice's chest. Warok and Batcheela stepped back, holding each other's hands, as the old shaman started chanting. The Shadowstone, the dark side of the Sunstar, was now emitting an aura of pale violet light that surrounded the entire bed.

Suddenly Teebo screamed and shook one of his fists, only to be motionless a second later. Batcheela put her hands to her mouth. "His eyelids are twitching. Is that a good sign? Is my child in pain?"

Logray stopped the worried mother from touching the violet light. "Teebo is experiencing something. It could be what happened tonight, it could be his life so far, it could be a vision of the future. We must not interrupt it, regardless of how much he might scream and how he might look like throughout. He is not feeling any pain, because all of this is happening to his spirit. His body is responding every now and then, as it needs to draw on enough of the Sunstar's energy to reconnect to his spirit. Once he's really tossing and turning, we'll know he's cured."

Indeed, behind idle eyes and twitching eyelids, Teebo was in a completely different place.

…

"What is this? Why am I here? Isn't this Mount Thunderstone? This is where Logray turned Morag the Tulgah witch into stone and she crumbled to pieces. She tried to take her with him, but he escaped alive. And this tree… "

The flowers on tree next to him were growing in a strange pattern. It did not take him long to realise that they were forming the outline of the dead witch's wrinkled face.

"It's her. It's Morag!"

"Welcome to the Neitherworld, Goldenfur." Morag's raspy voice echoed through the remains of the volcano and the nearby gigantic trees. "I have been expecting you. I knew you were destined to fail."

"I am not to be stuck with you forever, you monster!" Teebo shook his fist at the Tulgah witch. "I died serving my master and my fellow villagers. I died saving my best friends and the girl I wanted to marry someday. I should become one with my Soul Tree and watch over my parents and my sister!"

Morag laughed. Teebo knew that laughter too well, for he had heard it often back when he was imprisoned in the mountain with Wicket, Kneesaa and Latara.

"Foolish Goldenfur. If I, the face of evil, can live as a beautiful tree, then there is one place less left for a soul to live forever. Your master, Logray…he betrayed you. He punished you for endangering him on the day of my demise!"

"He did not punish me for anything. We were closer than ever after he rid Endor of the plague that used to be you, Morag! And my name is not Goldenfur!"

"True." The flower-face spoke again. "Goldenfur was a sweet, foolish little critter who was easy to break. His friends broke him before I came along; all I had to do was to lure him to my lair. The ugliest corpse the Ewoks are about to witness will not remind them of Goldenfur…"

"I don't want to die!"

"Is that fear I am sensing in you? Good. I can offer you a trade: if you promise me you will defeat Logray, you can live again. And be the sweet little, almost girlish Goldenfur again. Otherwise, you will be an ugly corpse covered in bruises, with no single trace of fur left. Perhaps your master could make some drawings of an Ewok body for whoever his new student will be, or even stuff you…it's not like anybody would willlingly shave their fur for that, right? Right?"

"Logray is like a third grandfather to me. He would never dishonor my corpse! He is not you! There is no evil in his soul. He can do anything, without even touching the powers of the Night Spirit!"

"Is that why he is now using the Shadowstone to bring you back to life?" Morag cackled. "Time to shed your ideals, just like you will shed your fur, whether you choose to live for me or die for him."

Teebo lay down on the ground, and was surprised to feel the dry grass scratching him. His fur was indeed falling off. Morag kept on cackling, louder and louder, the large face of flowers dissolving and each of the flowers turning into a miniature version of the witch's face. He tried to cover his ears, but the amount of brown hair that came off onto his hands frightened him. He closed his eyes.

And then he heard Logray's voice.

"She is partly right. I am using the Shadowstone to bring you back to life, but do not trust anything else she says. Snap out of it. You're the best student I have ever had and the only one who has never betrayed me."

"How do I know if this is really Logray and not the Wanderer, like last time?"

"Because Chukha-Trok could not kill the hand until you had severed the whole arm."

Logray's voice was no longer to be heard. What hand was he talking about? He did sever an arm, but he didn't remember that arm ending in a hand. Was that it?

Teebo opened his eyes again. Numerous Morag-flowers were still staring at him, but they were quiet and their eyes were closed. He looked down at his almost bare-skinned grey legs. Never before did he realise how small he was underneath all that fur. Then he sat down, gathering his own shed fur and dry grass around himself. He expected the Morag-flowers to laugh at him, but instead of that, the tree shed all of its leaves. Once bare, it no longer resembled the Tulgah witch in any way. It was a tree, just like any other, bending as the wind was blowing. With every single blow, it seemed to be growing smaller and smaller, until only a pile of leaves remained.

A fallen leaf found its way to Teebo. He took it in his bare hand and looked at it from both sides. The lines on it were crooked. With one more gust of wind, they rearranged themselves to resemble an unusually clear picture of a small creature carrying a huge box towards what looked like a hut. Before he could even wonder what it was, he felt the weight on top of his head.

The next leaf was too far for him to reach. He dragged himself out of the pile of grass and fur and crawled to it. Just like the first one, this leaf had a story to tell. The lines looked like a gigantic monster crawling out of a large cave.

Were these leaves telling a story? Just as Teebo was about to crawl to the next one, the wind blew it into his face.

The lines formed a picture showing two bodies of water, a large tree next to a smaller one and a clear summer sky at night, with a star falling. He felt a light bite on his ear, warmth on his lips and something was pushing him backwards, as if somebody were trying to sit on him.

The next leaf did not show as clear a picture, or so it seemed. Large Gorax-like creatures were walking on two legs and shooting fire out of their short hands. Teebo felt an unpleasant sensation in his lower back followed by an unnatural sound that resembled nothing he knew.

Another, larger leaf, was showing a sky, but there was no ground. He could hear somebody's voice, speaking in a language he didn't understand.

The pictures on the leaves were becoming blurry; the stories they were telling were becoming garbled. There was something that looked a lot like the stars on the previous leaf, but they seemed to be well placed and outnumbering the starks of the sky of Endor. At one moment, he could hear thousands of voices, but he could not make out if they were cheering on or mocking him. The pictures were slowly turning into random shapes, not accompanied by any sensation whatsoever.

And then he picked up the last leaf. It was blank. He gasped, then looked at his palms. The lines on his palms were showing the pictures from leaves, so fast that it was making him dizzy.

He fell down. Everything was pitch black. It was cold. And there was something on his chest. He picked it up. It was smooth and cold, in contrast to his warm skin.

Warm skin.

Eyelids twitching.

He was alive.

He opened his eyes, but everything was still pitch black.

"Where...am...I?" He screamed, on top of his lungs. "I cannot see!"

As the violet light faded away, Batcheela stepped out and hugged her son. Although Teebo felt her warmth, he was getting goosebumps; she could feel them, as his fur was still falling off with every single movement.

"Mom…is that you? I can hear you, but I cannot see you."

"Be careful. He's very weak." warned Logray, as he helped his apprentice drink some water.

"And blind, by the look of things." cried the mother, "Will he be able to see again, master Logray?"

The old shaman shrugged and patted Batcheela on her shoulder. "Only time can tell. I need to look through the scrolls to see what else I could do for him. In the meantime, you can wrap him in some blankets and carry him home. If everything goes well, the Duloks won't come any closer to the village...which is good, as he would freeze in the shelter."

"He does not have anywhere to sleep," remembered Warok. "He broke his hammock beyond repair the last time he slept in it."

"I had Lumat and his apprentices build me a new wooden bed. You can take it; I will request a new one. Tuck Teebo in, and use as many blankets as possible. Make sure the fire pit in the chamber is always lit. He will grow new fur, but until then, he is very, very vulnerable. Be careful."

Out on the platform, Wicket, Malani and Kneesaa were still waiting when an angry figure approached them. Latara, who was sitting in one corner, holding a piece of parchment close to her chest, turned around to find herself face to face with Lumat. He was fuming.

"Father?"

"What has happened here and why are you waiting with them in the first place?"

"There are many things we have to talk about, many things I kept a secret for years…but that does not matter now. If my love doesn't live, nothing matters anymore."

"Your love? I knew it; the two of you were secretly canoodling before my eyes all along!"

"The Wanderer was aiming at me and Teebo took the impact." Latara continued. "Then…then I distracted that creature until Wicket killed him. Then there was a lot of dust…"

Lumat shook his head. Whatever had happened was beyond his understanding. He looked over to the rest of the group, but he did not find the approval he was seeking.

"Wicket! You're the only male here. Do me a favour and escort my daughter home. I will deal with her later. I need to check on the catapults and…I could really use that knife she stole now. K'vark! What kind of a filthy creature did I father?"

Kneesaa tried to say something, but Wicket winked to her and took Latara by hand. Once they were on a lower platform, he stopped for a moment.

"Don't worry; your father is not going to deal with anybody, as long as we're here. Paploo and I will stick up for you and not just Lumat. The whole village will know that you fought as hard as we did. For now, you'd better hide somewhere. At least until we know if Teebo has made it."

"What do you mean, 'if'?" Latara protested. "He must make it. Otherwise nothing will make sense anymore."

"You really love him, don't you? How come I never noticed this before? The two of you are in love with each other!"

There was no response, just crying, as Latara ran down to the lowest platform.


	22. Chapter 22

Weechee Warrick came running back from scouting the area around the cave that the hunters had been sleeping in for the past two days. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and take off his snowshoes. Except for Wunka, the expedition leader, everybody was fast asleep.

"Keep it down, Weechee." Wunka got up and put a finger in front of his mouth. You will wake them up!"

"Something is going on! I am pretty sure I saw Gorneesh's warriors…you know, the ones with err...things drawn on their bellies!"

Wunka lit a large, four-candle lantern and ran for Paploo to sound the battle cry. Then he stopped and remembered that Paploo was not there, that he went after Wicket and Latara to protect them on their way home. He turned around to Weechee, who was shaking his head.

"I can see what just happened." Weechee rolled his eyes. "No Paploo, huh? Admit it, Wunka, you were wrong to exclude my little brother from this hunt. He would have been able to sneak up on the Duloks unseen. And Latara, the one your friends mercilessly shamed, would have helped us by fixing the net you tore earlier today when you caught a rock and tried to pull it."

"I thought it was a yayax!"

"Really? You would've probably thought I was a lantern bird. Either way, at this point, I am pretty sure I will be testifying against you before the Council of Elders. But first, we have to survive this battle." Weechee started nudging the warriors closest to him. "Come on, give me a hand!

...

"Ready?" Chukha-Trok gently nudged Asha.

She winked and nodded her head. "Ready."

With these words, they parted. There was no need to wish each other good luck or pray to the trees, because they didn't have much time and they had to be faster than a teek.

Asha was leading a group of older warriors towards the location Umwak had disclosed to Logray and Chirpa. Behind her walked Deej Warrick. Relieved that his youngest son had returned home safely, he was determined to save his older sons. He was slightly suspicious about Asha being supposed to deal with the animals and confused that Logray had chosen to tend to his apprentice instead. Even more confusing was the fact that she was tossing seeds in the snow and taking a very peculiar path towards the meadow near the cave where, according to Paploo, the warriors were when Wicket was expelled.

After a couple thousand steps, Asha stopped. She gestured to the group to be quiet. One by one, the warriors took their places on the lower branches of the closest trees, looking for safe vines to swing on.

"Whatever you see, don't be tempted to react before I've given you a sign," she warned Deej.

"These are Gorneesh's Duloks. We are not saving the hunters from them – we are saving everybody from being crushed under the animals' hooves and devoured by the sharpest of the fangs."

"I still don't understand why we are doing this." The Ewok by the name of Pondo was sitting on a branch and playing with snow. "Would they ever do that for us?"

"Listen, Pondo. I defended the forest from these vermin for as many snows as there are fingers on my hands and my feet. Before I learned how to wield my know-how weapons, they had slaughtered many innocent rabbits, munyips, maramus and other harmless creatures right before my eyes. If anybody had the reason to wish them death, it would be me. But you know what? I may not have nature powers or a bond with the Light Spirit, but I don't need them to know that slaughtering a bunch of foolish creatures who were clearly deceived is not something an honourable warrior does."

"Besides, Pondo," Tak added, smiling at his girlfriend. "Think of it this way: they know how to deal with the other faction better than we do. We need them. And they need us. Does that make more sense to you?"

Ponto nodded and got his slingshot ready. When everybody else was perched in their branches, Asha dug a hole in [or similar] the snow and placed her ear on the moist soil below.

"I can hear it. A stampede. The animals are coming. I can smell the Duloks, too. Now it's only the matter of who comes here first."

Seconds later, a spear landed near Asha.

"Freeze, tree rat!" A Dulok with an X shape drawn on his belly came forward. A few of his companions remained behind, holding the tied up Ewoks in front of them.

Asha came out of the shadows. She was calm.

"Aaaah, it's the Red Ghost!" one of the Duloks screamed as he started hitting the nearby Ewok hunter on the head. The X Dulok remained focused.

"She is just an Ewok. And a princess, for that matter. Why would anybody be afraid of a princess?"

"Awooooo!" Asha was standing still, making animal sounds.

"That is not going to help you, _princess_. The animals have been captured by a monster. This time, nothing is going to save your skin!"

"Awoooooo!" Another animal call echoed.

"I said quit!" The Dulok was clearly annoyed.

"I don't think it's her!" The Dulok with the diamond marking stepped out and poked his friend. "D-d-don't you feel the earthquake?"

"It's not an earthquake!" cried the Dulok with the O symbol. "It's the animals! They are coming!"

Indeed, large animals were stampeding from all directions – gurrecks, yayaxes, blobes, korrinas, frosches, foornars, boar-wolves, vorshaks. The ground was shaking under the weight of their hooves and feet.

"You lurdii, what on Endor do you think you're doing?" Wunka put his hands on his face, clinging to the nearest Dulok. Both were screaming. "We are going to die!" The X symbol Dulok stepped back and joined the group.

The animals were getting closer. To everybody's surprise, Asha did not stop calling them. At this point, the Duloks and their captured Ewok hunters were nearly crying, unable to escape and scared to even try.

"Is she trying to get everyone killed?" a worried Pondo asked Deej.

To everybody's surprise, the beasts turned around a couple of hundred steps from the group. The echoes of Asha's animal calls were now coming from everywhere. Only one pair of korrinas was still running towards Asha; once they reached her, they started snuggling up against her. The Duloks were puzzled.

"Now!" Asha jumped and gesticulated towards the night sky.

A bunch of Ewok warriors swung in from their vines, surrounding Gorneesh's Duloks, brandishing their spears, machetes and slingshots.

Asha jumped on a korrina and approached the X Dulok. "Do you surrender?"

"We do. That was...that was the Red Ghost I know from my worst nightmares." The X Dulok reluctantly put up his long arms and swallowed a lump. A korrina breathing in his face was not a pleasant sight.

"Good for you, I guess. Now, would you like to be a hero and save your king from certain death, and your wives and children from slavery?"

The Duloks were confused. They were expecting to be taken prisoner. One by one, they started nodding their heads. Eventually, the group leader uttered a barely audible "M-hm".

"Lead us to Patrash's hideout, then."

"But we know..." Pondo started, but Tak subtly stepped on his foot.

"Chak, lead us there. Your king is in danger."

Deej Warrick untied Weechee and Widdle and hugged them. "I am so glad you are both alive, my sons."

"Did Wicket get home safely, dad?"

"Long story short, he did. And without him, you wouldn't have been alive now."

"Asha, just one thing before we go. Please." Romba timidly approached the red-furred warrior on the korrina after Weechee set him free. "Was a female shaman of the Mountain Spring Village involved with this in any way?"

"She indeed was. Gunlaag was her name. My sister and I killed her."

"Kneesaa did…what?" Widdle gave Asha a blank stare and looked at his brother, who just shrugged.

"Wunka, what do you have to say about this? You refused to listen to Romba when he mentioned his grandfather and we could have warned everybody else long before anything happened! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Wunka looked down, unable to utter a single word.

…

Chukha-Trok's group headed in the opposite direction from what the Dulok con artist had told Chirpa and Logray, hoping to find Patrash's camp. If all was to go well, his group was to be accompanied by Asha, elders, warriors and Gorneesh's Duloks at some point. Now that the blizzard had stopped, the caves seemed much closer to the village than Asha's long trip home earlier that day would have implied.

"Chukha, Chukha, wait up!"

He turned around and saw Paploo, Warok and Umwak riding on the bewitched bordok, who seemed to be having the time of his life. Warok's glider was clearly visible in the large satchel on the animal's side.

"But…why?" The woodcutter scratched his head.

"This poor Dulok wants to save his nephew. And given his reputation, I'm afraid he needs at least two people to save _him_." Paploo was trying hard not to laugh. "Not to mention that the Great Horn of the Sistermoon will come in handy!"

Warok looked down. "As for me, I know that Patrash and Kaalwar want my head and that my son is barely alive… but it's my duty to protect our people. Now, is there any tree I could take off from? You know every single tree in the forest."

Chukha-Trok pointed at an oddly shaped conifer nearby.

"This is a good tree for taking off. But what are you going to do? They are in a cave. How can you fly into a cave on a glider?"

Warok rolled his eyes.

"Of course that's impossible. But who ever said that I was going to do such a thing?"

...

"Speak, you little piece of green slime! Speak! Where is your uncle and why did he disappear?"

Patrash was furious. The young Dulok from Gorneesh's tribe refused to say a word.

"T-tell him, Galak!" Gorneesh, his legs and arms tied together, was shaking with fear. "Tell him everything!"

Galak shook his head. "You're going to have to beat it out of me."

Kaalwar approached Patrash.

"Let's not waste our time on him. Umwak is so clumsy that he probably slipped off the cliff. The bratling is clearly trying..."

"He is not your father to slip off the cliff, swamp-breath."

The warlord hissed and looked at Galak and Gorneesh. The young Dulok was staring back at him, his eyes wide open, with no fear, whatsoever.

"How about we have him wrestle Kalgoto? If he wins, we forget this, proceed and..."

Patrash interrupted Kaalwar. "...if he loses, we'll get rid of Gorneesh's other eye and other tuft. Maybe some more of him." He turned to Galak. "Are you up for the challenge?"

By now, Gorneesh was squeaking with fear. He tried to reach Galak's tail with his teeth, but one of the Duloks in Ewok-fur vests kicked him in the teeth.

"I accept. Let's go outside."

Once again, under the light of the strange star, the young Dulok swallowed a lump. The whole group of bloodthirsty warriors from the other faction had formed a circle around him and a particularly large dark-green Dulok who was covered in numerous scars so deep that his fur was no longer growing in a couple of places. The crowd was clearly against Galak.

"Kalgoto is going to slaughter this one!"

"Take the fur vest off my back if the foolish bratling makes it alive!"

"Can I have Gorneesh's headdress? No, wait... I want his wife!"

Patrash clapped his hands. Kalgoto growled and threw himself at Galak before the young Dulok could even prepare himself for attack. The crowd laughed.

"So, what do we cut off Gorneesh first? How about his –"

Just then the sound of the Great Horn of the Sistermoon tore through the cold air, stopping Patrash in mid-sentence. He looked up. A shadow was standing above the cave entrance. Several shadows were lurking in the nearby trees and bushes. Paploo came out of his hiding place and sounded the horn again.

"Dengar, Ewoks!" Chukha-Trok yelled as he jumped onto Kalgoto, then hit him on the head with a club. "Run, Dulok bratling, run!"

Galak managed to extricate himself from underneath the bulky wrestler and crawl to the relative safety of a nearby rock. The battle he had been told about [?] was taking place right before his eyes, but it looked nothing like what the Wanderer had promised. Ewoks were everywhere, swinging in from the vines and throwing rocks from nearby trees, and they had no fear of Patrash and Kaalwar's tribe. The Red Ghost had arrived with a pair of korrinas, one of which was about to strangle a particularly bulky Dulok warrior.

But nobody touched him or Gorneesh.

Warok was watching from his tree, relieved that Asha and Deej's group had joined them on time. It was his turn to strike.

...

The snowy meadow was now a full-fledged battlefield. King Patrash was cutting through the battlefield with his spear. By now, he had realised that those above him were long gone and that he was now the leader. He was determined to get rid of every single furball attacking his warriors and get what he had always wanted.

Boiling with rage, he knocked two Ewok warriors unconscious and was ready to stab the smaller and weaker one to death. And then he spotted a glider. Whoever was piloting it was more skilled than any of the Ewoks he had slain and skinned for trophy vests and bone necklaces in the past.

"Warok! It cannot be anybody else," he thought to himself. The two unconscious [?] warriors were suddenly no longer interesting. He spat in the smaller one's face and ran to Kaalwar, who had managed to wound a young korrina and was bleeding from a bite wound on his thigh.

"Look up there! The one throwing rocks! It's him! The one who killed our fathers!"

"I can see him. But I cannot get up. And I no longer think it's –"

"Coward! One can see you're the son of Ulgo. I am going to get rid of him myself."

The king turned around. Half of his warriors were wounded, a handful was dead; and at this point, this was no longer a war for new territories, it was his personal revenge. One toss of the spear could have been enough to knock Warok down. But he wanted more. He wanted him to suffer, just as much as his father did under the feet of the Grudakk.

And then the opportunity presented itself.

In the middle of the battlefield, he spotted one more of Gorneesh's Duloks – the one who had been [_or_ gone] missing before the battle, the con artist whose name he had not even bothered to remember. He sneaked towards his target. Umwak turned around. The next thing he knew, there was a stone knife against his throat.

"King Patrash, sire? What is going on?"

"You are going to put my headdress on. Now!"

Umwak did not understand what was going on, but he could see that Patrash was not joking. He allowed Patrash to put his headdress on his head.

"He's going to think you're me and kill you. Once he has, I'll kill him!"

Warok threw a stone and missed. Just then, a smaller green shadow popped up from behind one of the snow-covered bushes. Galak, who kept quiet during most of the battle, quickly realised what was going on.

"Uncle Umwak!"

There was no use. Umwak was paralysed with fear. Rocks were falling around him, narrowly missing him.

Galak turned around and came face to face with the Red Ghost herself. She snarled and pushed him forward. The next couple of moments were a blur. He picked up one of the rocks Warok had previously thrown and tossed it towards Patrash.

"Uncle Umwak, duck!"

He yelled and threw the rock, which hit Patrash in the back of the head. The Dulok king collapsed in the snow, releasing his hold on Umwak. Galak screamed and started waving his hands.

"Don't throw any more rocks! We were with Gorneesh!"

Warok quickly landed next to the corpse. Once he came closer, he recognised the yellow mark around Umwak's eye.

"You are not Patrash...then the one who's lying here dead..."

"...is him, yes." Galak nodded his head. "He wanted you to kill my uncle, but I...I..."

...

"King Patrash has been murdered! At the hand of one of Gorneesh's bastard weaklings!"

One by one the Dulok warriors were dropping their spears, very much to the confusion of the Ewoks. They were now waiting for whoever was next-in-command to proclaim that the battle was lost.

"I surrender." Kaalwar got up, still bleeding from the wound and threw his spear in front of Warok. "Do whatever you want to do with me. Kill me, just like you killed my father." He looked over to Patrash's corpse and young Galak standing beside it, still trembling over what he had done.

"No. I never wanted to kill Ulgo in the first place and I won't kill you, either. Back in the days, King Vulgarr, Patrash's father, knowingly sent me and my group of warriors to the cave where your father dwelled in exile. Ulgo died by accident – he hit himself on my glider and slipped after I tried to set free the lantern birds he was to eat – but ultimately, Vulgarr wanted him dead and I was the scapegoat. You didn't know this, did you?"

Kaalwar's earliest days, when he spent his time wallowing in the mud with his father Ulgo, had long been overshadowed by memories of the days when he had asked everybody where his daddy was, never getting an answer. Once he was old enough to get an answer, he was told the story of the blood-thirsty Ewok named Warok.

To everybody's surprise, the Dulok warlord removed his Ewok-fur vest, the only relic of his late father, and knelt in front of his captor, his face down.

"A warrior can be wrong, Warok. And I was wrong. You are free to do whatever you want with me. Or get your actual magician to deal with me."

"Magician?" Deej scratched his head at what he presumed was a clumsy description of Logray, but his sons signalled him to keep quiet.

The remaining warriors gathered around. Warok looked at his his enemy for a while, then ordered him to get up.

Kaalwar stood there, his mouth starting to wibble. "What?"

"Get up. I am not going to kill you. My son almost died tonight at the hands of the menace that recruited you and Patrash. And I am grateful to the Great Tree and Brother Sky. In return for their mercy, I have decided to spare your life."

Asha came forward. "All the Duloks we have ever seen were cowards and unfair fighters. You seem to be an exception. I agree with Warok – we are doing this in good faith."

"That's right." Deej joined in. "And if you ever forget this night and how all your fellow Duloks deceived you, only for your enemies to end up being the ones telling you the truth..."

"I know. And I am not going to forget it."

The warriors from both sides were counting their losses and getting the help they needed for their injuries. Umwak and Paploo walked over to Gorneesh, who was still trying to free himself from the ropes, now unable to get his head out of them.

"Umwak! My dear sweet shaman, get me out of here. Please."

"Sorry, sire. It's best for everybody's safety if you remain tied up."


	23. Chapter 23

p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; line-height: 15.0pt;"span lang="SR-LATN-RS" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"It was close to dawn and so cold that even water in the heated tank in the centre of Bright Tree Village was starting to freeze close to the top. But nobody was sleeping. Numerous non-warriors, children and the elderly were returning from the safety of the nearby shelter. Master Logray was treating the injured with the help of Shodu Warrick and / br / Kneesaa and Wicket had been looking for Latara all night. They found her where they had least expected to find her – at the bordok stable. She was hiding behind a large mare and two of her fillies, clutching a piece of parchment to her chest and / br / "We brought you some food and water." Kneesaa placed a wooden tray on the floor, knelt next to Latara and reached for her hand. "The other Duloks have been defeated, one of their leaders is dead and we are safe."br / br / Latara turned her face to the wall, hugging one of the bordok / br / Wicket shook his head and sat next to both girls. "We forgot to tell her the most important thing! Arandee, Latara, Teebo has made it! He's very weak and, from what Batcheela told my mother, almost all of his fur has fallen off, but he's survived."br / br / "Really?" Latara turned around and pulled Wicket by the bib of his hood. "You are not just saying this to get me out of here and find my father in front of this stable, are you?"br / br / "Chak, really. He won't be accepting visits for maybe half a moon, but Malani is very keen to keep us updated on how he's doing. In her own words, the two of you are like her and me...whatever is that supposed to mean!"br / br / Latara let the filly go. She turned around and hugged both her / br / "You have no idea how happy I am right now. But still...is my father looking for me?"br / br / "I told him that you ran off and went out to look for you, along with a young scout I recommended. They are searching the grove high and low." Wicket giggled at the thought of Lumat being left to his own devices with young Gwig. "I reckon they will be busy for a day or so. In the meantime we need to find you a new place to hide. You can't stay in this stable."br / br / "I can. I don't even mind the smell. I'm not getting out of here. Ever. I don't want my father to find me."br / br / Kneesaa had an / br / "Come and stay with us for a while!"br / br / "Aren't Bozzie and Paploo staying with the three of you? It's going to be crowded."br / br / "Crowded, chak, but you'll be safe. No Ewok has ever been able to avoid the rage of Bozzie without consequences. Come on. I will fix you a warm bath and Wicket will tell the Elders what role you played in defeating that evil creature. He is testifying before my father and the Council of Elders later today."br / br / …br / br / Lumat returned to his hut at the break of dawn. Zephee got up from her hammock and ran to the main / br / "Any news of Latara? I am worried about her."br / br / "No. I could not find her. I wonder whose idea it was sending that useless wokling to help me. But never mind. I have come to the conclusion that Latara is hiding somewhere in the village. And I am not going to search through everybody else's huts...nor can I, for that matter. We will wait for her. Once she is no longer hiding, she will be in trouble!"br / br / "You're being too hard on her!"br / br / "Silence! On top of her disobedience and stealing my knife, her running away makes me think she'll try to get to her lover at some point. And that...that no-good bard might as well remain blind for life. What kind of a future would she have with him?"br / br / "The kind of a future that she wants, not the future you are trying to carve for her," Zephee said sotto voce, then went to check on her younger / br / Lumat yawned and sat at the table, eyeing an empty / br / ...br / br / Half of a moon had passed since the Ewoks had saved their home from the Wanderer, Gunlaag and Patrash's Duloks. The Council Hut was full of villagers who were about to witness an unexpected warrior initiation ceremony. Shodu and Deej Warrick were among those sitting in the front row. Head Elder Kazak, Chief Chirpa and Master Logray were standing on one side of the improvised stage, Wicket on the other. "Behold, Ewoks!" Chief Chirpa addressed the present villagers. "Today we have gathered for an important ceremony in the middle of the winter. One might say we have lost our minds, but I don't think we have. Right, Kazak?br / br / "Right." Kazak pulled his face into a grimace that was supposed to signify approval. "Our young friend Wicket Wystri Warrick stood out since his earliest days. He was always breaking the rules and getting in trouble. If we were to say that he is the most reckless soul to ever see the light of day in Bright Tree Village, that would not be an understatement. He was only twelve snows old when he tagged along with the expedition sent to revive the Tree of Light. After the next snow, we gave in and presented him with a belt of honour. He got into even more trouble trying to complete it. Close to one snow ago, he lost it in a battle with a wizard of the Night Spirit. Some of us were grateful for that…by that time, we were questioning our decisions."br / br / The older Warrick brothers were close to laughing, but Chirpa / br / "We should have probably bestowed the rank of a warrior upon him when he brought his friends back from the skies, where no Ewok had gone before, but we found a way not to. We introduced a minimal age for warriors and managed to hold back his initiation a bit longer. However, in the light of recent events, and knowing that the stars had predicted rough times ahead, I have decided to lower the number of requirements necessary for an apprentice to advance to the rank of a warrior. Why? Bright Tree Village needs more warriors. And warriors come in all shapes and sizes. In some cases, their flame burns from the day they were born and it would be a shame to put it out. Chukha-Trok, would you please bring the last item for Wicket's belt of honour?"br / br / The burly woodcutter stepped out of the crowd, carrying a pebble eye. He removed Wicket's belt of honour to stick this new trophy on / br / "This is a mem...murm...mam...a thing from the hunting party, a pebble we found in the rubble remaining behind from the Wanderer's lair. It's the last item on the young one's belt of honour."br / br / Chirpa waited for Chukha-Trok to be done and then he called Wicket / br / "Wicket, please join me."br / br / The diminutive Ewok stepped / br / "Kneel down before your Elders and promise to serve your tribe."br / br / "I promise. And I will never let anybody down."br / br / Wicket stood back up. The belt of honour remained on the / br / "It looks like we'll have to get the leather workers to make this a bit tighter for him. Or maybe not?" Logray said and pointed his staff at the belt, which then lifted into the air and was placed back on Wicket's shoulder, this time tighter than it was. "The size should not matter in this village anymore."br / br / The crowd clapped their hands and jumped. Wicket looked down, let out a single tear and then bowed to / br / "I would like to say something." Wicket turned to the Elders. "Unless it's against the rules?"br / br / "Like you ever called about the rules, young one…"br / br / "Kazak! Let my son say what he intends to!" a clearly irritated Deej Warrick yelled from the / br / "You may speak, Wicket."br / br / "Honourable Elders and fellow villagers, I was never much of a speaker, so I'm sorry if this does not sound as good as it should. I'm more than flattered to receive the honour I have been determined to receive ever since I was old enough to understand what warriors do. At the same time, I am not particularly happy about how this came to be. Two of my close friends were almost murdered by the Wanderer. If it hadn't been for the presents they gave me for my birthday, which I took for granted, they would both be gone now. Dead, under the rubble." He paused. "I might be young and inexperienced compared to most of the Ewoks present here today, but there is something I want to share with everybody. Never laugh at your friends. Never make fun of the ways they express their loyalty to you and respect them. Thank you once again!"br / br / He put his hand on his heart and closed his eyes. The spectators were silent. Then Kneesaa clapped and nudged Paploo, who was standing next to her, and he clapped too. Soon, the whole hut was cheering for / br / "Wicket reminded us of another important thing we would have otherwise discussed only at the next council meeting, so thank you, Wicket. The recent events almost cost us the lives of two young people and while one is here with us, the other will take some time to recover. However, that does not mean we cannot honour both of them. I would like…Latara, the hoodmaker apprentice, and Warok, the humble fisherman and the best on glider that this village has ever had to please come forward."br / br / Latara swallowed a lump. She had not expected to be honoured. She got up in front of the crowd and looked for her parents among the hoods present. And indeed, Zephee was standing close to the window, / br / "Kneesaa, would you please give a speech on behalf of your friend?"br / br / The village's princess joined the elders and the / br / "For hundreds, thousands of snows, there was a belief that girls are not supposed to be warriors, and our society was always looking down on them. Still, we always had a handful of incredible female warriors, most recently Asha and Chirita. But that is not enough. Look at me, for example. I was held back so many times. I had to disobey my own father a couple of times, until he assured me that his disapproval was not about my gender. He was afraid of losing me, like he had lost my mother. But I know that many other older Ewoks don't share his views, so this is important – from this day on, each female in this village is granted the right to carry a knife, an axe, a spear, bolo-slings or whatever she sees fit, whichever weapon suits her best."br / br / "Chak." Chirpa nodded his head and backed his daughter's statement up. "Our legends keeper is female, our heir to the throne is female…and we're sure that every woman in this village can be whatever she wants to be."br / br / Wicket and Warok both clapped. Kneesaa gestured to them to / br / "All of this said, I would like to present my friend Latara with a new knife, similar to the one that helped her in the fight against the Wanderer." She handed the knife to her friend. "Now you can clap!"br / br / Latara raised her knife in the air and smiled broadly, then winked. Head Elder Kazak was looking at her with disapproval, but she did not seem to care about it. After the applause died down, she hugged Kneesaa, who then finished her / br / "Father, I'm done. You may now address Warok."br / br / "Thank you, my daughter. Warok, you have always been a respected member of the tribe, but we feel like we never took your son seriously and on the behalf of the council. We would like to apologise to both him and you. Logray?"br / br / The old shaman began / br / "Young Teebo was my prospect from the day I had realised that he sees what many of us don't. I took him as my apprentice two snows ago. He helped me retrieve the Shadowstone and defeat Morag; later on he defeated Zarrak, my former apprentice who turned to the Night Spirit. Through these quests, as well as the most recent one, which almost took his life, he's not only shown a great understanding of the powers of the nature, but also great bravery – something many of the villagers present today were too quick to judge him about. Warok, while I will understand if your son wants to step back from magic for a while, I want you to know, and to tell him, that we are very grateful to him. And this axe is for him. Chukha made it to resemble his own, but it's slightly smaller, therefore more suitable for hand-to-hand combat. The next time Teebo proves his bravery, we'll be happy to bestow the rank of warrior upon him as well. After all, I started out as a warrior myself!"br / br / Warok humbly accepted the axe. Malani in the crowd smiled and hugged her straw doll. For the first time in her young life, she was more proud of her brother than her / br / "Great danger lies ahead of us," Logray continued. "But, with so many brave young Ewoks joining the warrior circle, our village will remain strong!"br / br / Now that the Elders were done, the musicians came onstage. A celebration was about to start. Kneesaa rushed to congratulate Wicket. Warok and Malani were about to head home to join Batcheela and Teebo. Latara returned to Bozzie and Paploo, and then she saw Lumat approach her. She took Paploo's hand and he immediately pulled out his slingshot. Bozzie stepped in front of / br / "This girl is so much more than you ever thought she was. And I don't care if she was born from your seed. We won't let you hurt her."br / br / "Bozzie, calm down. Paploo, put that slingshot away. I want to apologise to my daughter and talk to her on my own."br / br / "Only if she wants to…"br / br / "It's all right." Latara winked to her protectors. "I'll yell if I'm in trouble."br / br / The two stepped back and Lumat kneeled on one / br / "Latara, would you forgive me? Will you come back home? We're missing you."br / br / "Hmmm…I am pretty sure you lied to me about my mother being ashamed of me. And, for the past half of a moon, you were not there for me when I was heartbroken and bruised. You only cared about what you'd heard about me from others, as if that was the only thing that mattered."br / br / "I know and I'm sorry. I would hate to lose my beautiful, brave, outspoken girl."br / br / "Is that just because you and mom are having a hard time with Nippet and Wiley?"br / br / "No, absolutely not. You are old enough to know your responsibilities. You can play your flute whenever you like. And I promise I won't stand between you and Teebo. If I see him hug you in the main square on a particularly busy day, I won't mind."br / br / "Dad, I'm more likely to do that than him!" Latara laughed. "I've always been the more mischievous of us two."br / br / "Are you coming home with me and your mother, then?"br / br / "I will be home by sunset. Warok, Malani, wait up!"br / br / ...br / br / Latara entered Teebo and Malani's chamber. Her loved one was tucked under a pile of blankets, covered by a large piece of animal fur up to his neck. He looked nothing like the boy she had fallen in love with. Gone was the silky light brown and ochre fur. His face and lower arms, the only parts of his body that she could see, were covered in barely visible black stubble. His eyes were not following / br / "Latara, is that you? I can smell you, but I cannot see you."br / br / "Go ahead, tell him something," Batcheela reassured the girl, who just stood there, / br / "Chak, Teebo. It's me and I'm here for you." Latara was trying to keep herself from crying. She took the bare hand that reached out to her. Teebo rubbed her palm against his cheek and kissed it. The stubble from his growing fur tickled / br / "You weren't hurt as badly as I was, I hope?"br / br / "I had some minor bruises, but other than that, nothing."br / br / "And your braid..." Teebo reached to the stump next to the bed. "I wish there was a way I could put it back onto your head, with magic." He started coughing and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I'm so weak and I need to sleep again. Will you come to see me tomorrow?"br / br / "I will." Latara gently tapped him on the shoulder. The emotions were overwhelming her and she hastily left the chamber, not wanting Teebo to sense that she was close to tears. Warok and Batcheela were waiting to speak to / br / "What did Master Logray say about Teebo's condition?" she asked / br / "He will probably get his sight back after his new fur has grown." Batcheela hugged Latara and smiled. "The Wanderer was very powerful, but he couldn't kill him, and that says a lot."br / br / "M-hm." said Warok. "While it's always been somewhat of a curse to have a son who can feel and see beyond what we know, it was his nature powers that helped him resist the dark magic for as long as he did. We did not find one single thing remaining behind except the stone blade of his old knife – his cap and pouch had literally burned to crisp."br / br / "And the two of you aren't…angry with me?"br / br / "Why would we be? Come around again tomorrow...or any other day, for that matter."/span/p 


	24. Chapter 24

Warok and Batcheela spent the next several days tending to their son. The winter was exceptionally cold and they, along with Malani, often had to curl up next to Teebo to make sure he was warm enough. His new fur was growing slowly and he was gradually getting movement back in his legs and spine. The swelling in his mouth had gone away and he was able to speak properly again, albeit with a slight lisp.

Logray visited his apprentice twice a day to track his recovery and to make sure that there was a sufficient amount of all the necessary remedies. Wicket, Kneesaa, Latara and Paploo came and shared stories about what was happening in the village. Paploo often provided nonsensical gossip, courtesy of his mother, to make his friend laugh.

Having been a shy outcast for most of his youth, Teebo was not used to this amount of attention. At first, he found it hard to tell anybody where he hurt, to make any demands regarding food and drinks and to ask his sister to call this or that friend over. But as the time was passing by, he became more comfortable.

And somehow, he was getting used to the darkness. After the first three or four days, he stopped lamenting his loss of sight and came to terms with it. He would reach out to the improvised table next to his bed for food and water. At first, plates and mugs would tumble down on the floor or in the bed, resulting in there were some k'varks and some kicking of the table in frustration. Later on, he learnt to be more careful.

One particularly cold evening, Malani ran into the chamber carrying a pile of scrolls and a lantern.

"I'm doing so well with recognising the symbols." She sat down on the lower edge of Teebo's bed and spread a scroll. "I think I will soon be able to read pretty much everything!"

"That's great!" He gulped down half a mug of hot milk. "Are you going to read me the story of the careless young fisherman apprentice out loud?"

Malani nodded. She pulled the table to where she was sitting.

"That is what is on this scroll, chak. A sad story, made me cry when I read it first. When his mother found the bloody hood on the river bank and then, days later, the skull...a very sad story. Chief Chirpa told us to be careful and not to bathe in lakes we have not seen before..."

Teebo drank the rest of the milk. "A lot of stories on those scrolls were intended to teach woklings something." He reached out and put the mug on the table.

Malani cocked her head. Her brother's eyes were still glazed and he was not following her movement. How did he know where the table was?

"Teebo, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean, what I am doing?"

"I moved that table so I could put the scroll on it. It was next to your pillows. How did you know where it was? You cannot see!"

He shrugged. She sat down, grabbed a piece of coal and scribbled something on the blank space at the end of the scroll.

"Teebo, let's see if this was a coincidence. Tell me, what did I just write?"

He sat down and spread his arms, snapping his fingers as if he were holding on to nothing but pure air current.

"Snow is falling."

Malani turned the parchment around and wrote another sentence.

"And now?"

Teebo laughed and tapped his foot on the floor.

"Monster farts smell of pretty flowers. Hehehehe, that doesn't mean anything at all."

"It does. Your magic is still there. The Wanderer did not take it away. And you can...see without seeing. You were not able to do that before!"

Malani jumped to hug her brother. Every evening after that, she would bring a piece of blank parchment and write things down for her brother to read back to her, using his mind instead of his eyes.

...

One morning, Teebo woke up and started feeling the space around him to see who was around, as he had become used to doing during his blindness. His strength was slowly coming back and for the past couple of days he was able to sit up in his bed. He rubbed his eyes, just as he would do any other morning.

His face lit up.

"Mom? Dad? Malani?"

Batcheela ran into the chamber.

"Son, are you feeling sick again? I'm sorry, I was preparing something for you to eat and…" She stopped as she noticed that his green eyes, which had seemed idle for so long, were now struggling to follow her movement.

"Mom, I can see. For real, not through magic! You're a bit foggy to me at the moment, but I'm sure it's you!"

He reached out to hug his mother. Both were now sure that the recovery was going as it should.

"I'll make sure Malani lets your friends and Master Logray know that you can see." Batcheela kissed her son on the forehead and smiled.

Later that day, as the "fog" was getting less and less dense, Teebo lifted the blanket and observed the new, grey and black striped fur growing over the fluffy undercoat.

"W-what is this?" he wondered. "How can the colour of one's fur change?"

Trembling, he quickly dragged his blanket up to his mouth. Moments later, he broke down, puling the blanket over his head so nobody could hear him cry. He did not have the courage to get up, cover up and sit in the main chamber with his parents and sister. But he was too afraid to sleep, fearing nightmares. He just sat there, shivering, looking at the black before him, not ready to face the world again.

At some point, despite his best efforts, he fell asleep. He had yet another nightmare about his encounter with the Wanderer. This time, he could not move the axe and throw it at the wizard of the Night Spirit. Paploo and Wicket were on fire right before his eyes. The Wanderer was now aiming at him, his glowing red eye trained on him, but the menace's powers were different than usual. It felt as if somebody was shaking him back and forth. The Wanderer was coming closer, about to take his hood off to reveal his face.

There was no head. There was no body. There was just one foul-smelling ball of burnt black fur. The one who wanted to kill everybody was most certainly a one-eyed Yuzzum with a red gem in the place of his lost eye. And that gem was flashing again.

And turning green. Slowly the stench transformed into a pleasant scent that was still nothing like a meadow of flowers. The black, greasy fur was turning a lighter shade and he was able to recognise hairs on it. What was going on?

"Wake up!"

"Whaaaaa?!" Teebo screamed and started backwards, almost falling from the bed.

The nightmare faded away and the ugly Yuzzum face was morphing into the smile he had been dreaming of during almost two full moons of blindness.

"Latara? H-h-how?"

The only girl he ever had eyes for was standing right before him, carrying an oddly shaped bundle wrapped in cloth. He gasped. She hugged him, stroking his rough, dark fur as he slowly came round.

"You had a nightmare. Either that or seeing me for the first time in two moons is a scary experience!" Latara giggled and then sat down, leaving whatever she had brought with her on the floor.

Teebo clumsily pulled his blanket up to his neck, forgetting that he had already grown enough fur to be decently covered.

"You're getting much, much better."

"And I can see you are...uh...here. That's good."

"When you speak like this and I no longer have the desire to mock you for it, I guess it means that..."

"...that you're tired?"

"You lurdo!" She smiled and gently pinched his cheek. "You always get things wrong. I wish there was a way to echo what my father said about us. You would not believe it, he has no problem with this anymore."

"I do..sort of."

"What?" Latara nearly fell off the stump.

"I'm just...worried that I'm not the same person who fell in love with you. Not only because I don't look the same, but the only thing I can wear now is a plain hood, and I never liked those. The first time I go out for a walk, I'll probably be scaring woklings and old ladies. Growing tall was one thing, but if you also look err…as mean as I'm looking now…that's a whole different matter. I don't know. Would you really want somebody like me to hold your hand? Somebody ugly and strange should not be walking around with the most beautiful girl in the Bright Tree Village. You deserve better!"

Latara was surprised.

"No. My love will always be beautiful to me!" she said, without a single pout or smirk. "Please, don't talk like I used to! You should know better, you never cared about these things."

"I don't...I am...I have not looked at myself yet. I don't want to go to the outhut before the sunset. I might not go at all. Maybe I can uh...find a way to control the smelly pot and make it levitate its way here...then again, I don't want anybody to point and laugh. Oh, k'vark!"

"I just cannot see anybody laughing at you after everything that happened, Teebo."

"On top of it, I am too thin." He frowned.

"Your mother is a great cook, she will sort that out. And more of you will mean there will be more for me to hold." Latara winked and leaned over to stroke his chest.

"You still want to hold me?"

"Hold, kiss...you name it, I want it."

He pushed her away and turned his back to her.

"That's just pity. Because I'm ugly. You...you don't really mean it. Nobody really means anything these days."

Latara rolled her eyes and then frowned. She thought for a while. Teebo was staring at the thatched wall, facing away from her and she was sure she could hear him weeping. If this had happened one snow ago, or even two or three moons ago, she would have yelled at him and walked out. But this time, she couldn't.

"Arandee. I'm ready to give you all the time in the world to make peace with what has happened. For the first time in my life, I have faith that this will turn out well. And I don't need to be able to understand the trees for that. I just _know_ it."

"Are you saying that...you'll wait for me?" he finally turned around. "But why?"

"Chak. I'll wait for you. Don't ask me why. And until then, I have something for you. I almost forgot about it. The only thing I'm asking you is to open it after I've left home."

Latara left the mysterious bundle next to his bed, blew a kiss and went out. He counted to hundred before picking it up, then unwrapped it Inside was a gurreck skull headdress with a base similar to his old hat, adorned with churri bird feathers and large teeth.

Was he supposed to wear this on his head? That kind of garment was for warriors, not for the failed shaman apprentice he considered himself to be. And how did they know that it was he who had killed the vicious beast?

As he was trying to decide if he was confused, impressed, flattered or all of those things, something fell out of the headdress onto the floor.

The jaggedy piece of parchment seemed familiar. It was the poem he had written to Latara the morning the hunting party left to search for food three moons ago. He felt goosebumps and his heart started beating fast. The morning when the hunting party was leaving, he could have found another way to throw the poem to Latara, but for reasons he was not quite able to put any of his six fingers on, he was ultimately embarrassed with the idea of her reading it, of knowing that he had enjoyed the kiss as much as she did. How did it she get it in the first place?

He held the piece of parchment up close to the light, solely to realise that something was written on its other side, too. He turned it around.

It read, simply, "Happy birthday".

He had forgotten about it. Could it be that the last snow was about to melt? Had it really been three moons since he almost perished in the fight against the Wanderer? Had it really been three months since he was no longer himself?

Putting on the headdress took some effort. He was still weak and he could feel its weight. The shadow on the wall of the hut looked somewhat intimidating: a body too frail for an Ewok, with a belly barely visible, all with an animal skull on top. But was that another pair of ears? Impossible!

Teebo turned around and saw Wicket standing in front of the chamber curtain. He was making shadow puppets.

"I see you got the gift we all contributed to!" the young Warrick winked at his friend. "I'm not your girlfriend...don't turn your head when I call her that, you're eighteen snows old today...but I think it looks good. Much better than that green hood I put on you when you were barely alive!"

"What do you mean, 'everybody contributed to it'?"

"Latara told us all how you saved her from that posessed gurreck, so when the hunters were done getting the meat..." Wicket patted himself on the belly. "Ee cha, those were some nice evening meals, by the way. Anyway, Paploo and I took the skull. Master Logray supplied the churri feathers. Then we took it to Latara and she topped it with leather. And Kneesaa made sure this was all right, with her dad, the council and all."

"But why?"

"Why? You're a hero!"

"I am not! I failed, just like I did last time when you said I was a hero. You are a hero, you killed the Wanderer and saved us all. That said...where is your belt of honour? I hope you were not punished for not following the rules again?"

Wicket snickered.

Teebo was worried. "D-don't tell me you lost it again! I would not be able to forgive..."

"I didn't! I completed it. I'm a warrior. The smallest we have had in thousands of snows, but I've made peace with being small."

"Eecha wa maa! That is wonderful! Why didn't anybody tell me about this?"

"You were still blind, in bed, with fever and patches of fur. They also honoured our friends, your dad...and you. Now that you can see, ask him about your new axe!"

"I have an axe?"

"Chak, an axe with a blade made out ofstone from remains of Mount Thunderstone and a handle carved from a branch of the Father Tree."

"And w-what am I supposed to do with it?"

"Join us for the first warrior practice after the winter hiatus." Wicket was on his way out. "Master Logray agrees. He thinks that your skills can be put to use in combat. Besides, you need to regain your strength."

Teebo shook his head. How was he to participate in warrior practice when he couldn't even keep his new headdress on of his head without feeling immense pain?

His throat was dry. He reached for the mug with water and drank it with his eyes closed.

He was afraid of seeing his own reflection.


	25. Chapter 25

p class="MsoNormal"span lang="SR-LATN-RS" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;"The snow had melted and the mud dried. Happy Grove was echoing with the chirping of birds again. The sunlight was finding its way even through the densest treetops. Bright Tree Village was getting ready for yet another flower / br / Wicket, Kneesaa and Paploo were gathering long sticks for the basket weavers on the edge of the forest, facing a large meadow. When their bags got heavy, they stopped by a hollowed tree trunk. The princess and her cousin were enjoying the weather, and were looking at a bunch of small critters running around. Wicket. however, was unusually quiet. He was just lying down, looking at the treetops for a while. Then he sat up and shook his / br / "What's wrong?" Kneesaa / br / "I'm just reflecting on the last couple of…snows. I cannot believe that I used to complain about running errands like this one. How could I have ever thought that helping others is something a great warrior would not do? Why didn't any of you tell me to cut it out?"br / br / His friends had / br / "I told you, many times, but you were not listening. It was impossible to make you listen."br / br / "I wasn't around during that…phase of yours. I don't think I would've noticed either; I was too busy with my own reflection, how great I supposedly was and whatnot. So glad that this is over, for both of us!"br / br / Upon hearing what Paploo had to say, Wicket smiled. They hugged each other. Neither of them had been too keen on hugs in the past; they were so rough, so mature, and so important. At this point in time, all of that seemed ridiculous. Kneesaa looked on and then she remembered / br / "So, know what I'm wondering about? That Ewok who came up the river two nights ago, Leektar…he says he's seen some really unusual beings in the forest. By how he described them, they look a lot like those we saw when we were retrieving the Sunstar the last time around…all white, larger than a particularly bulky Dulok...maybe not as smelly. Kinda like the Zorbian space pirates."br / br / "Impossible. We chased those pirates away. I don't know where on Endor Zorbia is, but it's probably not close to the Happy Grove. Maybe it's close to the village Leektar came from. What did he say it was called? Red Bush?"br / br / "Maybe they wanted to pay us back for that one time we beat them and they mistook the Red Bush Ewoks for us?"br / br / "Chak. Maybe…maybe he's just really sad and scared because his whole village perished in that forest fire, including his wife and three woklings. I wonder what he'll tell us after he's recovered."br / br / ...br / br / Back at the village, Batcheela put a pot of chicken stew on the table. Warok had just come back from the guard duty at the supply hut. He went straight to Teebo, who was carving a piece of wood at the / br / "Son, I brought you something. Bozzie saw me, asked about you and told me to give you this. It's from her and Paploo, they insist it will look good with your headdress. He kept these for a while and then she saw them..."br / br / It was a double-stranded necklace made of animal teeth. Teebo nodded, mumbled something that sounded like "thank you," then picked the necklace up and put it on. It felt strange, just like his headdress did. He went back to the window and sat down to carve again. The piece of wood on the windowsill fell down and he could swear that there was a splashing / br / He reached out the window to take it back, solely to realise his hand was wet. Somebody placed a barrel of rainwater in front of their main chamber's window opening. He had to lean through the window to reach for the carving and, unexpectedly, came face to face with what he'd been afraid of seeing for a while – his own face. Staring back at him from the rippled surface of the water in the barrel was a large black and grey striped Ewok with somewhat bigger teeth, a gurreck headdress and now a gurreck teeth / br / Suddenly, everything made sense to / br / He remembered the scariest of the futures from his visions, the one where there was darkness followed by light and where the last picture that came to his mind was Latara, falling asleep on the shoulder of a dark striped Ewok, playing with a strange trinket. It was this very / br / The darkness, the mean look, the new fur...it had been him all / br / He looked outside again and started making animal noises. Warok was / br / "What is he doing, Batcheela?"br / br / "Probably nothing bad or wrong, that's all I know!"br / br / A couple of munyips flew in from the treetops. Teebo gestured to them. Then they disappeared as quickly as they came around and he returned to the table. His mother was giggling and his father was still / br / "What's the matter? You don't like the teeth necklace?"br / br / "I like it more than anything else in the world. Let's eat; I'm so happy that everything is back to how it used to be."br / br / Warok shrugged. He was sure that the boar-wolf may change his coat, as the old saying went, but nothing else. His son was still a / br / ...br / br / A little later, Latara was sitting in the sewing hut with Fashkaa, the head hoodmaker, making test hoods for the new generation of woklings. Earlier that day, Lumat had brought a basket full of little wooden ornaments, remaining from cutting roof beams and future furniture, and some hunters had just dropped off a barrel of raw / br / Latara was getting better and better at her craft and Fashkaa was particularly impressed with what she had done that day. Not one but three finished test hoods were folded on the large / br / "You seem to be unstoppable these days, young one. I like it!"br / br / Latara smiled. "Thank you, Mistress. I've been trying to get my mind off some other things. I think I've never come up with hood ideas as unique as these last time around."br / br / "The better you are at this now, the better the hood you make for your sister next year will be, and for your brother the year after that."br / br / "I know. Isn't it strange how the time flies by?" Latara put the large wooden needle asside and stroked her fringe. "I remember when I got my hood some ten snows ago…and how I angrily threw it away and said that it wasn't pretty enough. Did you wish the Gorax would take me away back then?"br / br / "No. The next day I came up with something that barely resembled what anybody else was wearing and your dad had to get over the fact that his little girl talks back and wants everything her way. It was funny, come to think of it. But I never thought you would be here, working with me. You enjoy making hoods, don't you? I can see you made a new one for yourself, with that dangling tail resembling your former braid."br / br / "Chak. It's more fun than making straps, belts and glider parts..." Latara heard a noise and turned around to see a small rodent on the window. "Hey, a munyip in our workshop. That's odd."br / br / She knelt down to pet the small animal. Then she noticed a long-stemmed white flower tied around its tiny / br / "Fashkaa, what kind of a flower is this?"br / br / The hoodmaker took the flower in her hands and smelled / br / "Hmmm, can't miss it. These only grow on the cliff above the grove, facing the rocky hill where some Ewoks claim they saw a mantigrue. Can't remember the name on top of my head, but their scent is what stands out. And sunsets are quite beautiful on that cliff, too!"br / br / Latara took the flower back in her hands. She had only one theory about where it come from and what it / br / "Thank you, Fashkaa. Can I, please, be excused? I need to go."br / br / "Sure." The Hoodmaker smiled and took over the folded / br / ...br / br / Latara was heading to the glider launch site. Near the Royal Hut, she bumped into / br / "Whoops, sorry!"br / br / "Latara, I..."br / br / "Not now, Malani, I need to hurry."br / br / "I was wondering if you have seen my brother...he was behaving so oddly..."br / br / "I'm almost certain that there is nothing to worry about. In fact, go to the leather workshop and tell Fashkaa that I sent you to help her out! You'll love it there!"br / br / Malani shrugged. She ran the other way and got to the sewing hut. Fashkaa was not alone; a young male Ewok wearing a blue hood with a feather was helping her out. He spotted his friend, whom he had recognised as one of the two female woklings who had gotten their hoods the same night as he had, the night when the forest had almost burned / br / "Goopa, Malani."br / br / "Goopa, Gwig. What are you doing here?"br / br / "Your brother sent me here. He said that Fashkaa is going to show me how to fix my belt!"br / br / Malani wasn't sure why, but she smiled broadly, the same way she would smile whenever she saw / br / ...br / br / Latara was gliding on the spring breeze, heading towards the cliff Fashkaa mentioned earlier. It seemed farther away than she thought. She was feeling anxious. If this was not what she was hoping for, then the last couple of moons were not worth the wait. Or were they? She was slowly being taken over with the feeling of unconditional love, something nobody had ever believed her to be capable / br / And neither had she, until / br / Once her feet touched the ground again, she saw a patch of flowers underneath a dry tree, resembling the one she received earlier that afternoon. She smelled them and nodded – they were indeed the same / br / At this moment she was sure – it could be only / br / "Where are you? You're too big to hide...ooh."br / br / "Right behind you!" He whispered and put his arms around her waist from the back. "I was hoping you would get my message and figure it out, so I came here on my dad's glider..."br / br / "You lurdo, you! That was so sneaky...and romantic. I love these flowers!"br / br / "I love them too, and I don't care what the tough men from the warrior circle would say or how much would they mock me for that. I love them, but not as much as I love..."br / br / "I know." Latara winked and gently touched the tip of Teebo's nose. "And I've known it for years."br / br / "So you're not letting me say it out loud?"br / br / "I am. I just wanted to say it first. I love you. There has never been, there is not and there will never be another."br / br / "And I love you."br / br / They kissed, for the first time since the night that could have separated them / br / "I missed this." Latara raised herself up on her shoulders and put her head on Teebo's lap. He smiled and looked away, nodding. "And that...that is one lovely necklace you have, is it new?" She reached out for the nearest gurreck / br / "Chak. And I will make one for you, too...out of these white flowers. Since I am still too weak to pick you up or carry you on my back..."br / br / "I would love it. And then we can kiss for a little more before we go back."br / br / …br / br / The night was slowly falling and the sun was giving the way to a starry sky. The Sistermoon peeked out from under the clouds and it did not seem to be laughing at anybody anymore. Some birds flew in the direction of the burning red disk on the / br / The futures had just come / br / strongemTHE END/em/strong/span/p 


End file.
